Kim Possible : Developments
by Novashiro
Summary: Kim Possible Story, starts at the end of STD, a story where friends start drifting away from each other before coming back together. [Kim/Ron] if you're patient enough. Please, Read and Review. (English isn't my mother tongue so please don't be too harsh) Rated M for later (no lemons) Disclaimer: I don't own Kim Possible or anything that comes from the show.
1. Chapter 1 : It was So the Drama

Ron was coming back home, this day was going to end at the top of the list of the shittiest days of his life. Not that it had been that bad, there was a lot of good: his friendship with Kim seemed to be rock solid again, Drakken and Shego were behind the bars, hopefully for good and he finally made Drakken acknowledge him by making him say his name. Then why was this day so bad? Today had been an emotional rollercoaster, finding out about Drakken's new plot had brought Ron and Kim close again, especially when they ended up tied in this storage room after Kim's new boyfriend ended up being a synthodrone who knocked her out. Here he managed to start voicing his feeling and started hoping. Maybe he and Kim would end up together, that smile in the storage room wasn't something she made up to comfort him right? Maybe she realized she had feelings for him too? And after Drakken had been taken care of when she came to him saying they had somewhere to go and they were going to be late he started to feel his heart bursting out his chest: "This is it, this is where KP and I start".

And then it started going sideways. A global justice agent interrupted them saying he found someone from their school in the rubble of Drakken's lair: it was Eric. It turns out the real Eric wasn't a synthodrone. The real Eric had been kidnapped by Shego while we were stopping Middleton's Diablos and Drakken simply created a synthodrone that looked like Eric. The moment Kim saw Eric, Ron felt his heart breaking: she had stars in her eyes and couldn't stop staring at him. Suddenly it was just as if Ron wasn't even here, Kim was asking about Eric's whereabouts during the whole stitch and they decided to go together at the prom to finish what they started earlier.

Ron took the ride a police officer was offering him since Kim and Eric took his bike, without asking of course since it was like he wasn't even here, and stood here, just waiting to be home and finish what was officially the worst day of his life. He couldn't help but think about how unfair it was, it was him that always stood by her even in the worst moments, him that travelled to the other side of the world to bring back a fancy flower to save her, him that fought supervillain alongside with her, him that was here in this storage room to bring back KP's fire. The only thing Eric ever did was to come with his "handsome" face, broad shoulders and "cool" look and this was it, he had KP's Heart. It wasn't only anger toward this situation that was boiling inside Ron, there was also a bit of disappointment toward his best friend, toward the girl he loved. A girl who didn't care about anything other than looks. He knew it was unfair to think about KP like this considering she stayed his friend even though she became popular and never judged people by their looks but when it came to her love life the only thing she wanted was a "hottie". Ron knew it, it was for this reason that she left him in a closet last year when she went to the dance with Mankey. It was for this reason that Drakken was able to trap it tonight. And it was for this reason that she left him on the parking lot tonight while she was lovingly embracing Eric who was driving HIS BIKE.

Ron went straight to his room and laid on his bed, not able to sleep after today's events. He kept thinking about KP and if they would one day have a chance to be together. Kim liked hotties, boys who were tall, with good looks, boys who were popular and successful, boys who could tell girls cheesy lines about how beautiful they were, boys who were confident about themselves. Everything he wasn't. And he knew that if there were things he could work on such as his confidence (that would need a lot of work) or his manners (how many times did Kim tell him he was gross when he was eating?), there were others he would never have, some because it was impossible (no one can modify his height or built, except with artificial enhancements like the HenchCo ring but he refused to use such things, it would be like lying to her and he knew KP would see through it) and some because it just wasn't him.

The truth is Ron hated hotties more than anything in high school, yes even more than Bonnie, because they were everything he hated: they were superficial, they didn't care about people outside of their life, the only thing that mattered to them was to be as popular as possible, that and girls. Even if he knew they weren't all like this, he knew that Mankey was really serious about painting and that it wasn't just a way to be popular to him or that Brick was serious about Football and really wanted to make a living out of it, he couldn't manage to find any redeeming quality about Eric. He was the embodiment of the "hottie" that Ron hated, the kind that only liked what was popular, the kind that wasn't serious about anything except when it helped him in getting what he wanted, the kind that could only see him, Ron, as the loser they wanted him to be, and the kind that only liked Kim because she was the "girl who can do anything" and the beautiful captain of the cheer squad.

Eric wouldn't have paid any attention to the girl that was being bullied back then in preschool, he wouldn't have looked at Kim when she was wearing her braces back then in middle school.

And Ron, more than anything, didn't want to become that kind of guy. His motto was "Never be normal", when every guy was dreaming about becoming a hottie and being at the top of the "food chain" he just wanted to keep his friends, real friends like Kim, Monique, Felix and Wade, and keep doing what he likes to do: eating, playing video games, cooking, helping people with Kim. He didn't care if it didn't sound cool, that's who Ron Stoppable is.

The head full of those thought he drifted to sleep, hoping that tonight's events were just a dream; that he would wake up and the girl he loved wasn't dating this guy, especially after he came close to confessing his feelings to her. Tomorrow is another day, it couldn't be worse than this one.


	2. Chapter 2 : Aftermath

**(Hello, for future reference this fanfiction will be mainly focused on Ron's POV even though that I'll sometimes switch to someone else's POV. This mainly because I think Ron is the most interesting character of the show, the one who evolves the most while still staying himself. I plan for this fanfiction to go through the whole senior year so don't expect it to be fast because I like to take my time. Sometimes I will have a lot of time to write so I'll post some chapters in a row but I will probably have some down periods due to work ^^. Now I speak too much, here is the next chapter.**

After the whole Diablo stitch, a big part Middleton was destroyed due to the fact that Drakken had activated the diablos in Middleton earlier that in the rest of the world. This meant a lot of work to rebuild the town to its former state, a time the students of Middleton's high school could use to relax. Kim spent almost the whole time with Eric. They spent a lot of time at the mall chatting, watching movies, going on dates, just like any other high school couple.

How did Ron know that? Because Kim's time was split between Eric, who took most of her time, her family (she still lived with them don't forget), and Ron. This time was a real torture to Ron. Sure he was spending some time with KP despite the fact she had a boyfriend and that was great because it meant their friendship was still solid, but that also meant he had to listen to the complete description of her dates with Eric. Had to listen how handsome Eric was, how funny he was, how great their dates were, and this was starting to exceed his tolerance. He could handle KP and Eric dating, it was hard but after the initial shock he was confident he could adapt. Sometimes he thought that if he was lucky KP's relationship with Eric wouldn't last and he wouldn't have to go through this forever, but then he would remember how important KP's Happiness is to him and that it was wrong to wish for her relationship to fail. He made his choice: he would endure KP and Eric dating, that's a thing.

However it's another thing for KP to rub it in his face every time they would see each other. It was like she literally had no other conversation subject than her and Eric. It's something to admit the girl you love is in a relationship with someone else but it's another to have to listen to the details of this relationship, EVERY, SINGLE, TIME. It was starting to grind his gears and worse, Kim was probably starting to see it.

 **Kim's POV**

From Kim's perspective life was great since the Diablo stitch. Her relationship with Eric was growing stronger every day, she couldn't get enough of how charming he was, of how nicely he treated her and of how great their dates were. He was also completely supportive when it came to her hero activity, which was great considering not many boys could handle their girlfriend suddenly dropping everything to go to the other side of the planet with another guy, even if that guy was only her best friend. Her relationship with Ron was also getting better, Kim was angry at herself about the way she treated him before the Diablo stitch, completely leaving him alone just because she had a new boyfriend. She understood that she didn't want to lose Ron to get Eric so she took the decision to tell Ron everything. By sharing everything, just like they always did, they would stay as close as best friends could be.

Unknowingly to Kim, that decision was very unfortunate for Ron since his time with Kim was filled with talk about Kim's relationship with Eric and how great the said relationship was. His actual chat with Kim was growing very uncomfortable at lightning speed and Ron was reaching the limits of his patience.

"-You know Ron, Eric really pulled off all the stops for our last date, I can't believe how magical it was" said Kim with stars in her eyes.

Ron forced himself to stay calm and answered with a fake interest in his look "-What did he plan? Something better than your last dinner and movie?"

"-Even better, first he took me to a fancy restaurant where we enjoyed a really great dinner, you wouldn't believe how great it was…", that ticked Ron a bit, did she even forget there was no restaurant in town that could hold a candle to his cooking? "…and then he took me to a dance because I couldn't really enjoy the prom because of the Diablo stitch, that was soooo sweet of him."

"-I guess…" started Ron…

"-You know" Kim interrupted him, "I never really thanked you about that night."

Ron was a bit lost and Kim probably saw it on his face.

"-The night of the Diablo stitch" she continued "about what you said in the storage room"

Ron's heart started to swell, maybe she…

"When you said there was a guy for me, out there, in here, it gave me the courage to keep on fighting. And you were right…"she said ecstatically "… Eric was in here, and I can't believe how lucky I am to have met him, maybe he really is my one and only…"

It was like someone just threw a bucket of cold water directly into Ron's heart, his shoulders fell, the smile on his face was gone. Kim saw it and interrupted herself before starting again.

"… Don't worry Ron, you're a great guy, my best friend, and I'm sure one day you will find someone who will like you for who you are, just like I found Eric, you just need more time for it to happen. I am sure that there is a girl out there who will get the heart of Ron Stoppable." She said, smiling brightly, her arm around his shoulders to comfort him.

To Ron, every single of her words was like a dagger in her heart, she couldn't be more right on one point though: there was indeed a girl that had managed to get Ron Stoppable's heart and that girl was right next to him telling him how great her relationship with another guy was.

Kim kept going "And when you find her, because I'm sure you will, we will have so much fun together going on double dates, it's going to be great."

It was too much for Ron, he had to leave before breaking down crying in front of the girl he loved. Excusing himself to Kim, saying that he was late on his homework, he left earlier than expected, Kim would probably have more time to spend with Eric now, walked home mechanically, like a robot, completely lost, trying not to think about this because if he did, he was sure he would collapse. He finally managed to reach his home, laid on his bed and let go of everything.

It was like he had a hole in his chest, he never thought the expression broken heart could mean physical pain but now he was experiencing it firsthand. He started crying, howling, and hitting everything he could in his room. It was so unfair, too unfair and when it was over, when he had expressed every single piece of grief and anguish he experienced he took a decision. The kind of big decision that pushes your life in another direction.

"-From now on, I do things for myself, not for Kim, not for my parents, not for anyone but MYSELF. I don't want to feel like that ever again." He sighted. "Sorry Kim, I'll have to distance myself a bit because if I don't, I'll get insane."


	3. Chapter 3 : New year, last year

**(Hello again guys, just to say that I really appreciates the feedback you give me every chapter in the review, especially CB73: your reviews are really helpful. Don't hesitate if you have something to say concerning either the plot or the writing, I'm open to debate. Enjoy)**

It had been more than a week since the day Ron and Kim had that chat. Since then Ron only saw Kim once: Friday, at Kim's "Ron night". It had been really calm, they stayed at Kim's house, enjoyed a movie then Ron came back home. That doesn't mean Ron did nothing of the week. He didn't manage to find anything to do the day after his chat with Kim so he spent the day at his home catching up on homework and classes (Yeah, Ron spent a day studying). Since he didn't want to depend on Kim for anything he could do by himself he needs to be more organized when it came to work. The next days he spent some time with Felix, went to see a catch fight with Monique, worked on his cooking and went to the mall in order to get new clothes.

Ron didn't care that people said he had no taste for fashion: he chose what he wore without thinking about what others would say. At the end of the day he was pretty satisfied with his self: He kept most of his shoes, only replacing the ones that were too small for his growing feet and stuck with basic jeans and black pants. The real problem came after that. Ron never paid a lot of attention to what he wore, that's why he sometimes had peculiar (let's say it like that) outfits. Finding shirts he genuinely liked was a hard task, but finding shirts he liked and could wear at school without being laughed at was close to impossible. At the end of the day he managed to find what he wanted. Then he chose to let go of his signature jersey which was replaced by a black jacket with vertical red stripes on the sleeves.

He was ready. Ready for a new year of high school, ready for his last year of high school, ready to show them a new Ron Stoppable. With is mind in peace, he went to sleep.

Of course things never go planned.

When he opened his eyes, one of the first things he realized was that the house was silent, which was strange because usually his parents would have been downstairs, eating breakfast and preparing for school. Then he watched his phone. Ron immediately jumped out of his bed and after a quick shower, grabbed some protein bars and ran off to school. He had to go by foot since his parents refused to let him use his bike due to the enhancements of the possible clan during the diablo stitch.

While running he was questioning himself, why would he wake up late? Because his parents told him they had to leave early today to start one of their specialty get away. First reason. Because he was so pumped about the beginning of the year he fell asleep late and was too tired to hear his phone ringing. Second reason. Because usually in these cases it is Kim who wakes him up when she shows up at his door in order for them to go to school together, however she probably chose to go with Eric. This was probably fated to become her new morning routine since they started dating anyway. Third reason. He finally arrived at the school gate, he was more than 15 minutes late.

"-Okay, not the best way to start the year, but I can avoid detention if I manage to get past Mister Barkin and get into class." Unfortunately, today was one of these days where everything just goes sideways.

Mister Barkin just caught Ron trying to sneak into the class and just pushed him inside while promising him detention at the end of the day. Then he chose a seat between Felix and Justine, Kim, already seated between Eric and Monique gave him a sorry smile. This was fine though, it would force him to hold on to his decision.

After the first period, the usual bullies came on to him. That was part of his new life though: he would not give them the satisfaction to harass him another year. Three guys came to him, a smirk on their face, Ron knew what was going to happen, they would come and ask him something small, a penny or a protein bar and if he let them have their way it would last the whole year. But this year was not going to be the same as usual.

"-Hey Ron," they started "how are you doing this year? You mind giving us some time?"

"-Sure" he answered in a low growl.

"-You see, my friends and I would have liked to buy a thing or two before the next period starts but we are a bit short on cash. How about you just give us the rest?" The three of them were positioned around him, just like Ron expected.

"-No", he answered

"-No?" they repeated, "Are you sure about this, you know we don't like taking no for an answer, just be reasonable."

"-Go to hell." He growled.

Then they started, Ron was expecting it. However compared to Drakken's goons or Monkey Fist these bullies were much less dangerous. Their punches didn't hurt as much and he was used to taking hits due to having to play the distraction for Kim at every mission, sometimes you can't run away from bad guys and have to endure some hits.

This time he fought back, they were three, larger and taller than him but he had the experience they lacked, the durability to take some hits and his mastery of monkey kung fu from Yamanouchi. He knew that if Master sensei wouldn't have approved the use of it to harm others, using it to defend himself was all he had in order not being hurt really badly.

This went on for a minute then Mister Barkin came and separated the students. At first he decided to give detention to all the students but due to the fact Ron was obviously defending himself against three people he was sent to the nurse's office during lunch and managed to escape detention for today.

At lunch, Kim and the whole school was talking about what happened to Ron after first period.

"-He should know his place" Bonnie said with a smirk on her face, "if a loser like him try to stick for himself like that he will just be crushed. He should just stay at his place: the bottom of the food chain"

"-Shut up", Kim answered "they ganged up on him, three against one, what kind of cowards are those guys"

"-Next time he should just give them what they want, he would stay out of trouble", Eric added.

"-But you have to admit, him standing up to these guys like that was kind of cool" Tara said

"-Cool? You've got to be kidding me, it was freaking epic you mean!" Monique added, joining the discussion. "Seeing a guy standing up for himself like that gives me some hope: there actually might be some good guys still available around here."

"-You can't be talking seriously…" Kim started

"You don't have the right to talk, Kim" Tara said, interrupting the auburn haired cheerleader, "you and Eric maybe are the perfect couple but it doesn't mean other can't try to find someone as well".

Kim, stayed on her chair dumbfounded by this turn of events, she knew Tara had a crush on Ron since the camp Wannaweep incident and that Monique and Ron were good friends but she didn't expect them to react this way, even though it was nice to see Ron standing up for himself without her help. She decided to stay out of it, considering this could actually be a good chance for her best friend to finally be a bit more popular at school.

"Please, a loser like Stoppable will stay a loser, no matter what he tries" Bonnie intervened, before leaving.

At the end of the day, Ron came home with some bruises, his ego still in one piece and, unknowingly to him, a bit more credit with the girls of Middleton high than at the beginning of the day.


	4. Chapter 4 : New chances

Ron's life had started to fall into a new routine. It wasn't that different from his old one even though it had a lot less of Kim in it. Eric just seemed to take all of her time, even Monique was starting to complain she didn't see her BFF much anymore. However that was hardly a problem for Ron, sure he was still seeing Kim at school and every Friday night but he was spending much more time with Felix, playing video games and watching action movies (the ones Kim thought were dumb) and was polishing his cooking even more. Furthermore, his grades were starting to come up a bit, he would probably never be an A student but his grades went up from an average of C-C+ to an average of B-B+. Finally seeing Kim was protecting him from the pain he felt in his chest every time he imagined her with Eric, dancing, smiling, kissing… Yeah, he was glad he didn't see Kim as much as he did before.

Then something changed. Something Ron couldn't have expected even in his wildest dreams. At the end of the week, his and Felix's evening of video game would end up as a three man game. And the identity of the third player was something no one, not even Ron (and that's saying a lot) could have imagined.

"Alright, listen up" Mr Barkin started, "You are going to have a group homework to do, for this assignment you will be divided in pairs, you will pair up with the student next to you"

Ron started to smile in Felix's direction, this was going to be easy, they were starting to get pair up but MR Barkin shouted "Renton, you are paired with Flanner".

-"Why?" Both Felix and Ron answered.

-"Because if you are paired with anyone else you will end up doing all the work, I want both students to contribute to this work so I'm pairing the two geniuses together".

-Ron raised his hand "What about me? I'm between Felix and Justine, do I have to do this alone?"

-"Just use your head Stoppable and pair up with the one next to Flanner"

Ron lifted his head and his smile faded. Really? What kind of karma did he have? Being paired up with HIM… Sure it was better than being paired up with Eric but still, what kind of luck was this?

The bell rang and Ron rushed to the door with an angry look on his face, hopefully lunch would help him get through all this. Big mistake: today is mystery meat day. Seriously, how could they keep serving this to the students? It was disgusting, especially for a decent cook who knew how to do much better with the same food.

He just sat alone, wondering how he was going to go through the day…

-"You okay? You look kind of pissed." A feminine voice said. Ron lifted his head expecting Kim, out of habit, what was his surprise when he saw…

-"Tara?" Said a bewildered Ron

-"Yeah," she said sitting at his table "you seem pissed, something wrong?"

Ron pulled his thoughts together before answering, a lot of things were "wrong" in his life. Like the girl he loved dating the kind of guy he absolutely despised and leaving him behind, but that wasn't the kind of thing he could tell Tara, or anyone. Only Felix knew about this and only because being his best friend he could read Ron like an open book. But chatting with Tara was nice so Ron focused on his other sources of discomfort.

-"You mean besides being forced to eat this" he said pointing to the disgusting meat in his plate "instead of what was at the old senior table"

Tara laughed, "I think you could see this ever since they suppressed the senior table, it was pretty unfair when you think about it, besides you're not stupid and probably expected it so I bet there's something else"

-"Was Tara always so insightful" thought Ron "You're right, I'm more pissed at this morning pairing, I mean I was going to be paired with Felix and now I end up with him."

-"I think you two are going be fine together, you probably have some things in common" she answered.

-"Please look at him, what could we have in common? We are like complete opposites. Nothing to expect from this, I just hope it'll be over quickly."

-"I didn't expect this from you Ron", said Tara in a disapproving tone. Ron lifted his head up, looking her in the eyes, he didn't get what she meant.

-"Wasn't judging people by their cover exactly what you were reproaching to Bonnie? Yet you're doing the exact same thing, you don't know a thing about him and yet you still talk bad about him. I know him better than you and I'm telling you you have more in common that you might think."

Ron froze when he heard that, was it really what he had been doing? Was he doing the exact same thing Bonnie Rockwaller had done to him all these years? The exact same thing he criticized with all his strength? "Yes you did" said a little voice inside his head "you did because everyone does it, because it's the easiest way to put people in a square" but was that the kind of guy he wanted to be? Didn't he decide to be better than that?

He looked Tara in the eyes "Thanks Tara, for reminding me about this, seems like I was making a big mistake." He looked toward Bonnie that was looking in their direction "Now you should leave before Bonnie start getting on your nerves for sitting with the loser."

-"You're no loser Ron", Tara said "and Bonnie is stupid to think about you that way, even though she's my best friend I will never agree with her on that". And then she left, leaving a completely dumbfounded Ron Stoppable looking at her back as she went back to Bonnie and her friend. Maybe he should consider spending some time with Tara, that's if she wanted of course.

The bell rang sounding the end of lunch and pulling him out of his thoughts. He started going toward his next class and saw a familiar face in front of him. Was it real? Just after his conversation with Tara, did the universe really gave him another chance not to act like an asshole?

He took a deep breath, forced his legs to go toward him and spoke up "Hey Josh, want to talk about that project we have to prepare together?"


	5. Old and New Friends, Old and New Foes

**(Hi guys, I'm going to start talking about the events of S4 (like missions) even though I won't detail them, if you want to see more about these just watch the show, trust me it's great.)**

 **Josh's POV**

-"Hey Josh, want to talk about that project we have to prepare together?" Ron said coming toward him.

Josh's feelings toward the blonde sidekick were always conflicted. When he was dating Kim he saw Ron as nothing more than a nuisance that prevented him from spending more time with his girl. But after Kim and he stopped seeing each other he had to admit, Ron Stoppable was someone really interesting. Sure he had his embarrassing moments, made some bad jokes and lame puns but Josh kind of wished he could be as natural as him, never hiding anything about what he liked without caring about what the other thought. But that was impossible, he saw it with Ron, acting like that was losing all your popularity and your place as a top member of the food chain, and Josh couldn't let that go.

-"Yeah, sure even though I'm probably not the partner you hoped for."

-"Was it that obvious" Ron said, embarrassed.

-"You mean when you stormed out of the classroom at the end of class without even a look back? Yeah, that was obvious."

-"About that," Ron started "Listen, I'm sorry about reacting like that, it was a total dick move, and not only that, I mean also calling you "monkey" and all this, it was stupid from me and I wanted to apologize".

Josh just stared at Ron for a second, what the hell had happened to Ron Stoppable over the last weeks. First a change of clothes, then the grades going up, then Tara eating lunch with him, and finally him apologizing to a "hottie"? Josh understood when he was dating Kim that Ron didn't like him and guys like him so when Ron stormed out of the classroom earlier, it made sense to him, no way Ron would enjoy having to work with a "hottie", especially when the top of the school's food chain treated him like dirt, but that was unexpected. Maybe he wasn't the loser everyone wanted him to be.

 **Ron's POV**

-"I hope I didn't fuck this up" thought Ron, "Maybe I should have waited a bit before this…"

Josh interrupted his thoughts, "Only if you accept mine."

-"What?"

-"I acted like a total douchebag when I was dating Kim and even in high school, just because you were at the bottom of the food chain so I'll accept your apology only if you accept mine." Josh said.

-"Deal." Ron said with a smile. "So about this project, maybe we can go to my home after school and start working on it? My parents are out of town for a while."

-"Fine by me." Answered Josh. "See you after school."

Their work on the project was going well but Ron and Josh spent more time talking than working. When Josh entered Ron's room he was shocked to see the limited edition of the last zombie mayhem plugged in the game console. Josh, unknowingly to the whole school, really enjoyed playing those kind of game so they started playing after finishing their work, Josh was good enough to give Ron a run for his money.

The next day they worked at Josh's place and Josh showed Ron some of the paintings he worked on at home, Ron really liked those, way more than the paintings Josh showed at school those ones were landscapes of territories you could place in fairy tales or fantasy universes, they all were beautifully executed and the color Josh used made some look like they were shining.

Just as Tara said, Josh and Ron had a lot in common, their only difference was that one was better looking than the other and kept things the food chain would consider embarrassing at home. Josh also liked the same action movies than Ron even though their tastes in music were complete opposites, the Oh Boyz being the exception.

To his own surprise Josh found himself joining Ron and Felix in their discussion and their gaming nights and, finally, the three of them started hanging out at school. That came as a shock, Bonnie looked like she was going to faint, cursing Josh he was going to end up at the bottom of the food chain, but he didn't care about what Bonnie thought anymore.

For the first time he had friends at school, real friends, not the ones that swarm around you just because you're popular and good looking, friends that stick with you and your flaws. That was a refreshing change.

Then came the first game of the Middleton Mad Dogs, Ron didn't like the team that much, and now that he had left the cheer squad, nothing forced him to come and watch the team and their new Quarterback, Eric, his best friend's boyfriend.

But still, Kim was going to cheer and the words Tara told him were stuck in his head. Hadn't he judged Eric too fast? Casting him out just because he was Kim's new boyfriend and never giving him a chance. When he saw how quickly he and Josh connected it seemed stupid to keep up this behavior.

However he thought it was stupid to go to a match alone, he asked Josh and Felix if they wanted to come but Felix was working on an improvement for his wheelchair and Josh was working on a new painting. Ron started thinking about who he could invite, Kim being a cheerleader was off limits, to Ron's heartache's relief. So he ended up asking Monique who gladly accepted.

They met up at the mall to grab some food before going to the match, he and Monique shared the same love for good food so they ended up eating on their way to the match, the main topic of their chat being about Ron's new friendship with Josh. As usual Monique wanted to know about all the gossip and she kept on teasing him about how he was mean to keep her in the dark, giving him little taps on the shoulder as "payback" for telling her nothing.

Then, they took their seats and started enjoying the match. It wasn't that different from watching catch and they had some good laugh seeing Lowerton's defense being played around by Eric who was quite good in his new quarterback role. Kim kept on cheering her boyfriend as hard as she could. They were having a great time until, in the middle of the match, Ron and Kim received an alert about Dementor trying to control Kim's super suit.

After a quick mission, Ron and Kim went back to the match congratulating each other. As usual Kim had flawlessly prevented Dementor from carrying his scheme, however Ron was able to fight with some henchmen and successfully take out some of them.

-"I'm serious Ron" said Kim, "you really are improving. Have you started training or working out?"

-"Nah," answered Ron, "I'm just trying to stick for myself a bit more, the Bueno Nacho episode showed me I was perfectly capable of taking on henchmen, even though I'm far from your or Shego's level"

-"Still, it's really nice that you're stepping up, makes things really easier during missions. Besides, how did you manage to meet up so fast, were you nearby?"

-"I was watching the match with Monique, so yeah, you could say I was nearby." Said Ron with a smile.

-"Kim!" Eric shouted, "You okay?" he asked.

-"Of course sweetie, Ron and I handled it easily." Kim answered.

-"I'm sure you were awesome, as usual." Eric said with a smile.

-"Ron was a great help, he really stepped up his game since last summer." Kim pointed out.

-"But in the end it's you who saves the day." Added Eric with a smile, "Let's get back to the game, they are waiting for us."

They started going back to the field while Ron went back to the seats, however he was able to see Kim grab Eric's arm and saying, "Hey, Ron was a great help tonight and without him both you and I would still be prisoners at Bueno nacho HQ, I couldn't do those missions without him having my back so please, ease up a bit around him."

-"Okay, it's just the only image I got from him is him getting beaten by that clone of mine, I don't really see him stepping up or saving the world." Eric answered in a lower voice.

-"But he does, and he's my best friend since pre-K so I don't want any problem between the two of you."

-"There isn't", Eric reassured her, taking her hand and bringing her back to the field.

The mad dogs finished the game easily and the players started to felicitate their new Quarterback". Ron and Monique cheered for the victory of their team, then split up at the end of the game. Monique went to see Kim while Ron waited the players at the exit in order to talk to Eric.

When the star quarterback left, he managed to see Ron waiting at the exit so he told his friends to wait for him and started to go toward the blonde sidekick.

-"Hi, nice game." Started Ron "Even better than when Brick used to be quarterback."

-"Thanks," answered Eric "what are you doing here" he continued.

-"Well, since you're Kim's boyfriend and I'm her best friend I thought it would be a good idea to get to know each other, since we're probably going to have to meet sometimes, at moments that are important to KP." Ron declared, waiting for Eric's answer.

-"We could" he started, looking around, as if he was making sure no one was listening to them, "or not." Ron looked at him, shocked, "the way I see things", Eric pursued "you're an anomaly. Usually girls like her don't hang out with guys like you. Face it she's popular, beautiful, top of the food chain: all the things you'll never be no matter how much you try. Face it: you and she just don't belong to the same world and you are bound to grow apart. Do you even think you'll be able to go to the same kind of college than her? That she will keep you around forever? In the end she'll chose the one that are just like them, guys like me. And at the end of high school you'll have a chat about how you want to keep that bond you two have and after a while, in college, she'll forget about you. So I don't think I should bother caring about you, the loser she's dragging around."

Ron felt like someone gave him a big punch in the face, he was struggling to gather his thought after the speech Eric just gave him when the star quarterback of Middleton high brought his face closer to him and said in whisper "You think I don't see the way you look at her when she's not looking at you? Devouring her with your pitiful eyes" he paused and looked at Ron in the eyes "You will never have her, she's mine and I fully intend to keep her."

He went back with a smile and started to join back the rest of the team "See you around, loser, enjoy your last year with her." he said as he was going back, leaving behind a completely speechless Ron Stoppable.


	6. Chapter 6 : Moving Forward

**(Hey guys, sorry for the wait but I had some things I had to take care of and couldn't work on the story for a couple of days. That's why this chapter is slightly shorter than usual. Another one is coming right after)**

Ron woke up the morning after, completely dizzy, he couldn't even muster the strength to get out of his bed. Eric's words were still echoing in his mind. No, he couldn't let him win, not this guy. Then he realized, there was no battle, no war, no fight left for him to win. Eric had already won, he won that night at Bueno Nacho's HQ when Kim chose him over Ron.

And he would always win because Kim would pick him every single time. There was no such thing as Ron Stoppable and Kim possible getting a happy ending together.

Ron kept thinking about that moment in the storage room. The moment he was so close admitting his feelings for Kim. Would they be together if he had told her in a more direct fashion? Would Kim and he have danced at the prom together? Would they still be dating right now or would have Kim felt the need of "trading up" for someone more handsome, more popular, more… food chain? Because that's what Eric was, no doubt about it since their little conversation after the match. Ron didn't care about Eric being what he was, his friendship with Josh had shown him you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, however what was a problem was how Eric put himself above all the students at school when he was doing nothing more than being handsome ad playing football.

If you would judge without paying attention to looks, the "best" guy at school would probably be Felix due to the inventions he created that were helping a lot of people, but Ron couldn't recall something Eric had done that wasn't self-centered. All his choices revolved around himself, the opposite of Kim which was giving a lot of her time to help people she didn't even know.

Ron slapped his own face, not once, not twice, but three times. No use thinking about what would have happened if I had said something else in this storage room, and no use thinking about if Kim and Eric were a good match or not, that wasn't his business. Kim had proved much more often than him that she was able to make her own decisions about her life, that's not up to me to change her. Don't be mistaken, my feelings for Kim are still there and I will do anything to protect our friendship but I won't stay here, waiting around and doing nothing while Kim's dating "Mister food chain".

Ron had thought talking to Kim about his chat about Eric after the match, not the part about his feelings but the part about Eric's thoughts about Kim and her best friend since pre-K. Finally he chose to stay silent. He wasn't scared about Eric's reaction because he knew he could take whatever "pretty boy n°8657" could throw at him, he just didn't want to force Kim to choose between him and Eric. A part of him wanted to believe that it was because he had to be better than Eric and let Kim make her own decisions but it wasn't that. It was a much more selfish reason: he was scared. Scared that faced with this choice, she would choose Eric over him, scared that he would lose everything he got back after the Diablo stitch. Scared that he would lose the girl he loved.

That's why he endured. He endured seeing Kim and Eric together at school, knowing they were going on dates, knowing they were kissing even though he knew Eric was a selfish and pretentious prick.

The only ones who knew about the chat he had with Eric (not the part about his feelings) were Josh and Felix, he had to work really hard to convince them to let him handle things.

Ron spent the day in his bed, his thoughts wandering about Kim, Eric and his own feelings, when the sun set he slowly drifted to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be the start of a new week, Ron had stopped looking behind, now was the time to start moving forward, on his own two legs.

The following weeks had been completely average for Ron, even though Kim and he had to stop Junior and a girl able to switch faces, the missions were going on as usual and so was school. He was still seeing Kim at school and every Friday evening, nothing new here, and he was splitting his remaining time between his studies, his cooking training, his friends and his hobbies, trying not to think too much.

However, some people at Middleton high were furiously thinking about the blonde sidekick.

 **Tara's POV**

"I wonder why he didn't come to see me yet. Maybe I'm not good enough for him? Stop thinking like that Tara and go for it!" Thoughts raced in her head

 **Monique's POV**

"I don't know why he didn't come to talk about our date at the match. Maybe it wasn't that good of a date? I was so excited when he asked me to come with him…" she thought.

 **Tara's POV**

"Maybe I went overboard, lashing at him like that at lunch must have been too much."

 **Monique's POV**

"Maybe he didn't see that as something else than an outing between friends, I should have been more obvious"

 **Monique and Tara's POV**

"I guess I just have to ask him out. This time with no place for doubt" they thought shivering.


	7. Chapter 7 : Storm at Middleton High

One could say this day was a typical Monday at Middleton high, with teenager's problems and class dramas. However, on this day, three events occurred that would greatly shake the life of the peaceful high school.

The first period had started as usual, Ron was trying to focus on the class Mr Barkin was teaching, he was doing pretty well since he had started to take his studies seriously and his average was around B+. Tara and Monique were, unknowingly to each other, eying the same blonde boy with messy hairs, thinking about how to ask him out. The first period ended and Mister Barkin asked the students to gather in the gym.

-"Alright, listen up" he started. "Due to how great the exchange student program we established last year went, the school board decided to expand the existing program. In order to do that we decided to establish a program with another school in England while keeping our existing program with the Yamanouchi School in Japan"

"I guess this means Sensei wants me to come back for a while," Ron thought "not a bad thing, it will keep my mind off KP for a bit."

-"However, due to last years' experience, we decided to extend the duration of these exchanges. They won't last a week, they will last for the rest of the year."

A shocked gasp came from the student's body in the gym. "I have two others information to give you, first due to the duration of these exchanges the students won't be selected, only volunteers from the senior year will be accepted. Second, due to some problem they have with their school grounds, the Yamanouchi School won't be able to welcome any of our students."

Ron frowned when he heard that, "there is no way they would have such problems, I guess it means they intended to train me here and didn't want any other students coming to the School" he thought. "I wonder who is going to come all the way here for the rest of the year."

-"We will let you the time to decide if you want to apply to the exchange program for England, we expect your answer at the end of the week, then we will select the student over the week-end. You will have a week to prepare yourself, the School taking care of the administrative problems, and in two weeks, the chosen one will be attending class in London, while the exchange students will arrive here."

Ron couldn't help but smile at the way Barkin called the one who would finish his year in England, it would have been great if one of his fellow Yamanouchi student had been here to joke about it with him.

-"I will be expecting your candidacy in my office," Barkin concluded "Dismissed!"

The students left the gym wondering what would the new students look like and it wasn't short before rumors and questions started to stir the entire student's body.

The second period went by in a flash and the students.

At lunch, Ron went ahead of Josh and Felix to find a table. Tara saw it, it was her chance, now that he was alone.

 **Tara's POV**

"Here he is. Felix and Josh aren't here, should I go? What if I look stupid? What if he says no?" All those thought raced through Tara's head while she saw Ron, sitting alone at a table. Then she decided if she didn't do it now, she would never have the guts to do it. She didn't care if it was at lunch, where everybody could see it, it was now or never. She went forward and stopped in front of Ron.

-"Hi Ron' she started.

-"Hi Tara" Ron happily answered, he was pleased to see her, he felt like he owed her since she made him realize how wrong he was about Josh.

-"Seems like you and Josh really connected right?"

-"Thanks to you, mostly." He answered

-"No, no, no, in the end it's you who turned this advice into the real thing." She said smiling

-"So, you want eat with us?"

-"No I'm ok, I just wanted to ask you…" she started, Ron raised his eyebrows waiting for her to finish. "There is this new movie that is out right now, I was wondering if you wanted to come and see it with me."

-"Sure, it will be cool to see it with you." He answered cheerfully before leaving his table to find Felix and Josh.

There wasn't a lot of people in the lunch room at the beginning of lunch period, but there was one that couldn't stay silent when she heard that conversation. The moment Tara headed back to her table she was grabbed by her best friend, Bonnie Rockwaller.

-"What do you think you are doing? Inviting him out of every other guy at school. Did you really become that stupid? Under those new clothes it's still the same useless blonde." The brunette started.

-"So what, I don't have to do as you want, if I want to see a movie with him you won't stop me?" the platinum blonde answered her friend.

-"You're a cheerleader, you can have any boy at school, why would you settle for that loser?" Bonnie snarled.

-"He's not a loser," Tara growled "He's a nice guy and I want to know more about him. And if you aren't able to support me when I'm asking a guy out then maybe I should really be concerned about the fact you are my best friend."

Bonnie stood there, looking like she was slapped in the face.

-"Let's be honest Bonnie", Tara continued, "you are protecting this "food chain" bullshit because you stand at the top and it allows you not to feel insecure toward Kim, but it won't prevent me from dating the guy I want to date." The face of the blonde was filled with fury as she went back to sit at her table. Bonnie just came back too, defeated, if it was anyone else she have never let this offense unpunished but Tara was different, Tara was her best friend. It was because she had her that she could honestly say herself "I'm not like my sisters." Sol she let it slide, hopefully Tara would come to her sense after her date with the loser.

-"Hey", Ron said coming back, not knowing what had happened "We didn't set up a date for it, how about Saturday night? I'll pick you up."

-"Fine by me" answered Tara, "I didn't say it was a date," she thought watching him leaving "It's ok I'll show him Saturday, how serious I am about this."

Bonnie saw the other student starting to gossip about it and took this matter in her hands "The first I hear talking about that won't ever be able to have a social life at Middleton High. Understood?" she roared to the students.

Unknowingly to Tara, there was a student that was really interested in the event that just occurred.

Monique now knew she had a very serious rival when it came to Ron, that meaning she would have to deal with her. Nothing too difficult, just showing Ron which girl really was the best. Love is, indeed, a battlefield and she was not going to give up.

She grabbed Ron's arm when he was at his locker before the end of lunch

-"Hey, you know I heard about this new dinner that opened in town. Maybe we could go over there and hang out? I mean, it's not because Kim is too occupied with her new BF that we shouldn't have fun too." She started.

-"Cool for me," answered Ron with a smile "when?"

-"Let's say," she pretended thinking "Friday evening?"

-"Great, I'll pick you up." The blonde answered.

-"Don't make me wait too much," Monique answered with a wink.

The rest of the day went on, uneventful, until the last period. Last period was P.E, Mr Barkin was as strict as usual and then came the end of class and the students had to clear the gym. Ron looked around but couldn't find either Kim or Eric? Unfortunately for them, Barkin was looking for them too, Ron then decided to warn them. He finally saw them, in a dark corner of the large P.E room. He stepped forward to warn them but interrupted himself when he heard them.

He never heard that sound of his life but he wasn't so stupid not to recognize the sound of two people making out. He started slowly getting away when Kim started speaking.

-"Look at what you make me do," she started "breaking the rules of PDA at school"

-"You regret it?" Eric answered.

-"No, not at all," she said giving him a quick kiss on the lips "unfortunately I belive our time is up, we better get back to Barkin if we don't want to get detention."

-"You believe," Eric said "I have another surprise for you." His hand lowered, gently caressing Kim's thights.

-"Eric, I said no," she interrupted him.

-"But why?" he pleaded, "It's been almost 6 months since we're dating, I just want to show you how much I love you."

"I told you I'm not ready" Kim said

Ron felt his chest swell up while he approached the exit of the room, thank god it wasn't what he thought. Now he just had to get out… He froze, it was like his heart stopped beating in his chest.

"Tonight," started Kim, "neither my parents nor the tweebs will be at home, then we will have all the time we need to do this in a perfect way."

Even Eric seemed lost, he looked Kim in the eyes "Tonight?" he said.

-"Tonight" she answered before kissing him full on the lips.

Ron ran away, he didn't care of the noise, they were too absorbed in each other to notice him. He found a place with no one around, fell on his knee and started crying.

When Kim and Eric had shown up, Ron had regained his composure and Barkin let them leave school, even for him it was difficult to punish both the head cheerleader and the star quarterback.

Ron spent his way home in his thoughts, Felix and Josh saw something was up but both of them knew Ron would only tell them when he would have decided to do so. So they waited, they waited for him to keep going.

Ron couldn't sleep that night, every time he closed his eyes his dreams were full of both KP and Eric. In the middle of the night he couldn't hold it anymore, he went downstairs and took a pill which made him fall into a new sleep, free of dreams and nightmares.


	8. Chapter 8 : First Date

The following days had been horrible for Ron. Of course the rumor about Kim and Eric "getting serious" had been going around, Ron had said Kim he was happy for while putting on a brave face but he had avoided being alone with her. He didn't want to hear about it, never in his life had he avoided Kim before.

He was even distant with Josh and Felix who were trying their best to cheer him up even though they didn't know what was going on since he was going out with two beautiful girls at the end of the week but was still completely depressed.

The rest of the week was a blur for Ron, he barely even heard that Justine Flanner had been chosen to go to London next week. At the end of the week he decided he wouldn't go out, he would apologize to Tara and Monique but he didn't feel like going out right now.

He took his phone and called Monique, telling her their outing was cancelled, then sat on his bed, in his thoughts. He was completely lost in his thoughts when the doorbell rang. Since his parents weren't here he had to go downstairs and opened the door to find…

-"Monique? What are you doing here," started a shocked Ron, "I told you we weren't going out this evening."

-"You really think I'm going to give up like that?" she answered with a smile, "it's obvious you are depressed about something, there is no way I'll let you alone with your bad mood. It's in those moments you have to go out and have fun, to get past this, come on go and prepare yourself."

Ron looked at Monique, she seemed determined to get him out, and he couldn't deny what she was saying was making sense. What was the point in staying at home, moping about Kim and Eric, he might as well enjoy the evening. "I'm coming give me a second to get ready."

 **Monique's POV**

"Ok" she thought, "he's out, now I mustn't mess this up. I wonder why he was feeling depressed? I hope he will talk about it, I don't like seeing Ron like that."

 **Ron's POV**

"That's really nice from Monique to prevent me from staying alone." He thought while putting on a proper shirt and another jacket. Then he came back downstairs and his brain fully registered the girl in front of him.

The weather was still warm enough to allow the student to wear some light clothes, Monique wore a yellow top that was showing her belly button and a red jacket, she also wore a dark pair of tight jeans that were showing off her long legs and casuals shoes. It was almost as if she was dressed for a date.

Fortunately his clothes weren't too shabby either because he would have looked really stupid next to her if that had been the case.

-"You, hum, you look nice" said Ron stammering

-"Thanks, you're not too bad either considering you picked the clothes yourself" Monique answered with a smile, teasing him about his usually horrible fashion sense "Now, are we going?"

-"Sure" said Ron showing her the way to his new bike, he couldn't keep the old one due to the modifications the possible clan made so Wade kept it for emergency cases.

Their evening went pretty well, considering the state Ron was when Monique found him. The dinner was good and went well, they kept talking about food, catch, music, movies and everything other than school. After the dinner, Monique told him she knew a place where they could have fun close and brought him to a dancing.

Ron was a good dancer even though some of his dance move were a bit too wild and unpredictable for her partner. His eyes were completely glued to Monique, how come he never realized she was that beautiful? She started getting closer to him without him realizing it and he could feel her fragrance. "This is really nice" he thought "we should do that more often" he said, looking at her.

"Definitely." She answered, while they were leaving.

Ron gave Monique a ride back to her place, the ride was completely silent, both were in their thoughts. Ron thought he shouldn't let what happened with Kim bring him down like that, and he was grateful to Monique for taking him out. He also never realized she was this pretty.

Monique, thought this could still be considered a friendly evening and she didn't intend to leave it like that.

When, they arrived at Monique's house, both of them leaped off Ron's bike.

-"Well," Ron started "that was nice."

-"It sure was." Monique answered, waiting for him to finish.

-"I wanted to say, thanks for coming to get me out, I really needed that."

-"I could see that" she replied, smiling

-"We should really do that again" he ended, starting to go back to his bike

"Shit" Monique thought, "I'm not letting it end like this"

-"Ron" she called him

He faced her again, a puzzled look on his face

-"You really changed this year, you know?" she started "New clothes, better grades, new confidence…"

-"Well, at least I managed to do that" he said with a smile on his face.

-"I'm sure some girls must have asked you out" she said, teasing him while getting closer to him.

-"Not really. I mean, I'm still at the bottom of the food chain at school, I don't think there is a girl at school that could be interested in me." He answered, wondering why she was talking about this.

-"Oh, believe me, I'm sure I can think of some that are interested." She continued, still getting closer to him.

-"Huh?" Ron froze.

-"At least, interested enough to ask you out to, let's say" she was now really close to him and finished her sentence by whispering in his ear "dinner and dancing."

Ron felt like someone dropped a bomb in front of him. "Is it real?" he thought "Wait, this means it was A DATE?" he lowered his eyes and saw Monique's face close to his and finally understood what she wanted.

A flash of Kim crossed his mind and he stopped himself. It wouldn't be fair to Kim. He gave himself a mental slap. It's not like she was fair to him when dating Eric. Where was the harm in going out with a beautiful girl? Especially when they shared so many interests.

He brought his face closer to hers.

 **Monique's POV**

"YES!" she thought when she saw Ron's face getting closer to hers.

She kissed him full on the lips. Neither of them knows how long they stayed like this, the only thing they know is that at some point they broke the kiss, Ron stammered a goodbye while his cheeks were bright red, and Monique went home after giving him a last quick kiss on the lips and smiling him.

 **Ron's POV**

Ron went back home silently, thinking about his first date and how well it went. Then he realized "Oh no! What if Tara thinks it's another date tomorrow?"


	9. Chapter 9 : Not That Way

Ron kept thinking about his date with Monique, now that he was sure it was a date. What now? Were they dating? Did he have to come and pick her up for school Monday? And of course, there was his evening with Tara. It was scheduled in a few hours and he couldn't stop thinking about what it meant.

Did Tara invite him on a date or was it only an evening between friends? And more important: what would he do if she saw this as a date?

He thought about his date with Monique yesterday, sure that kiss at the end was unexpected but it's not as if he never had thought about it, that's why he had kissed her: there was something. Something way weaker that what he felt for Kim, that's a given, (but why would I wait for a girl who will never look at me? At least not that way.), but there was SOMETHING. That included all their common interests and their already strong bond as friends, made him think he should try to date her. He wasn't in love with her, that was for Kim, but that didn't mean he didn't have feelings for her.

As for Tara, she was nice, beautiful (more than Monique from his point of view), delicate, charming, but out of all the times where they talked, there had been nothing, which would explain why he didn't see she was longing after him last year.

That added to another reason made the choice clear: he would be honest with Tara, he liked her, a lot, but not that way.

He froze when he thought about those words.

Not. That. Way.

Three short words that explained how he felt about Tara. And how Kim felt about him. He started to feel really bad about Tara and, mostly, bad about himself. He had no right to be angry at KP for choosing Eric, if she had the same feelings toward Eric that he had toward her then it was normal that she spent all her time with him. No matter how much he wanted to be angry, he couldn't because if that's what makes Kim happy he would endure it.

He also knew he wouldn't do the same mistake with Tara, they would enjoy their outing and then he would be clear with her. Because taking advantage of her infatuation for him wasn't the right thing to do, especially when one of his friends was completely crushing on the blonde.

His decision made, he did something he never expected to be so dreadful. He called Monique. He never expected a simple call would scare him so much.

-"Hey Monique." Ron started

-"Hey Ron, you okay?" Monique asked

-"Yeah, I wanted to ask you… you know… about yesterday…"

-"What?" asked Monique, a bit scared "Do you regret something…."

-"No, no, no" Ron interrupted her, "not at all, I was just wondering, you know… Where are we, the two of us? Are we dating or…"

-"Depends on what you want." Monique replied, "if you want to stop here there's nothing I can do to stop you, but if you want to give it a try, being called your girlfriend wouldn't be too bad."

Ron thought about it, the face of Kim came to his mind "Who cares" he thought "I'm tired of waiting for her, she chose Eric, fine by me, I'll move forward too."

-"I'd really like to be your boyfriend, if you are okay with having me as a boyfriend of course." He answered as seriously as he could.

-"Then I guess if you could pick me up for school Monday that would be a great start" she answered playfully.

-"Sure, see you on Monday, Monique."

-"See you on Monday BF." She hung up.

BF. I'm someone's boyfriend. A girl's boyfriend. Ron took a while just to process this information, then it was a burst of joy in the whole house and only Ron's shouts of happiness could be heard.

Then he thought about the stitch with Tara again. How was he going to handle this? "OK," he thought "First, there is no proof that this is a date, maybe we'll just go see the movie, enjoy it, chat for a bit and then leave it here, as friends. And if it turns out Tara thought this was a date, I'll act like a man and tell her everything."

That was it, Ron just had to wait for the time of his evening with Tara, which came surprisingly fast. Ron took off to the mall and tried to find Tara in front of the movie center. When he found her he couldn't help but gasp. She was breathtaking, with her white crop top and blue jacket that made her blue eyes seems like they were shining.

"Hhhh… Hi Tara" he stammered

"Hi Ron," she answered with a smile, noticing the effect she had on him. "Ready to get in?"

"Sure" he answered, following her in the movie theater.

The movie went well, Ron really enjoyed it, it was a good comedy and they had some really good laughs inside the theater. When they left the movie center they decided to grab something to eat. They settled for a small restaurant at the mall and enjoyed their meal. At the end of the evening, Ron drove Tara back to her home.

He left her in front of her house.

-"Thanks Ron," she said "I really enjoyed our evening"

-"Yeah, me too" he answered "This movie was a really good choice"

-"I thought so," she continued "Usually, I really enjoyed things when I'm around you" she started

"Here we go," thought Ron "I guess I will have to tell her after all. I really didn't want to do this."

-"You know," Tara continued, "Since we really enjoyed this, maybe we could do it again," she looked in his eyes "just the two of us."

This was it, truthfully it was hard for Ron, turning down such a beautiful girl when she asked him out. If it was the old Ron, he would have probably messed up in one way or another, preferably in a spectacular one, and this would have become a disaster. The new Ron prevented a disaster from happening. That doesn't mean he didn't mess up.

"Tara he started, moving forward to look at her in the eyes. He thought about it and ended up deciding the best way was to keep things short while being as delicate as possible. Hence, he took a step forward and tried to tell her it was impossible.

Then he tripped. He started to fall forward, Tara tried to stop him but he was too heavy and both of them fell on the floor.

-"You okay?" Ron asked "Damn I'm stupid…" he started before realizing their situation. Tara fell backwards, she was laying on the floor while looking at him. Ron fell forward, his hands and knees had stopped his fall.

Tara had a very intense and determined look in her eyes.

-"Tara…" Ron started… before being interrupted by Tara kissing him full on the lips.

Ron was shocked, however it felt nice, refreshing, a completely different sensation from… he rushed backwards.

-"I'm sorry, Tara" he started.

-"Why?" She answered him "It didn't feel good?"

-"That's not the point," Ron replied "I didn't want that."

She looked at him, she was starting to understand what he was saying. "Did I…" she started

-"It's not your fault, I mean, you're beautiful, nice, and sensitive but..." he stopped a moment looking at her in her sky blue eyes "I just don't like you, not that way."

As he saw sadness filling Tara's eyes he felt desperate, not only because of what was happening to Tara, sure he was blaming himself for not noticing her feelings, but mostly it was because of another thing in his mind. He hated himself for pronouncing these exact same words "Not. That. Way" The words that were stuck in his mind with Kim's voice, even though she never pronounced them. Because he knew the moment he told Kim about his feelings she would reply with the exact same words: "Not. That. Way". Three words from him that had shattered Tara's feelings just like he thought Kim's words would shatter his own feelings.

-"I see," Tara answered "I guess that's it then, I hope you'll find the right one for you."

Ron looked at her, walking to her house before calling her: "Tara." She looked back "I'm sorry."

-"You don't have to be, you were honest. Just answer my question." She said while looking in his eyes. "It's Kim isn't it?"

Ron thought at least, with all she went through, he owed her the truth, so after making her promise she wouldn't tell anyone, he sorted all of his feelings. What happened at Bueno Nacho's HQ, his feelings about Kim, and his date with Monique. He told her everything.

After a long time, she looked at him in the eyes, "I'm sorry" she started

-"You don't have to be" Ron answered before leaving.

-"Ron," Tara called him back, he turned to look at her "It's good to try to move forward but don't forget those feelings too. I'll be rooting for you." She said with a bright smile.

Both of them went straight to sleep this night. And both of them cried over a lost love, in the darkness of their room.


	10. Chapter 10 : Enter the Exchange Students

**(Hi guys, I read all of your reviews and I really enjoy to do so, I would also thank the readers who don't post reviews, thanks for keeping track of the story. I will introduce the exchange students in this Chapter. One of them is Yori, I didn't find her family name so I just picked a random one, the London exchange student is an OC, I created him and you can use him if you want, just say it's my character. Alright, here we go.)**

After the events from that night, Tara had grown even closer of Ron, Felix and Josh. Now that her relationship with Ron was clear there couldn't be any misunderstanding, even though Monique sometimes frowned when she saw them together she knew she could trust her BF.

Ron and Monique being a couple ended up being the big news of the week at Middleton High. Of course Bonnie was really angry that the school loser ended up dating one of the most beautiful girl at school but she was also relieved Tara escaped that fate, even though she thought her friend was spending too much time with the blonde sidekick.

The news of her best friend since pre-K and her BFF dating made Kim completely ecstatic, she knew there wasn't a lot of people that could really appreciate Ron so she was happy he finally managed to start a relationship with someone. As for Monique, Kim knew she was too strong willed for most of the boys at school, mostly due to the extremely high number of Monique's first dates that ended badly, so she was happy she found someone who would like her for who she was. Maybe this was the perfect fit for them after all, she couldn't wait for their first double date with Eric but she decided to let them settle in their new relationship before inviting them.

Eric too was pleased by this news since it meant Ron had finally moved past Kim, now at the end of the year he wouldn't have to face this loser anymore.

This week was a blast and for the first time Ron practically never thought about Kim.

Then at the start of the next week, Justine Flanner left for London while the other two exchange students arrived at Middleton High.

-"Alright, listen up" Mister Barkin started, "today is the day we welcome our exchange students, I hope you will show them you're proud students of Middleton High."

-"Yeah, yeah, we know" Ron whispered to himself, "just hurry up and finish this."

-"First we welcome, from the Yamanouchi School, Yori Setsuna" Mister Barkin announced.

Ron couldn't help but smile, Yori had always been his closest friend at Yamanouchi and he was sure that was the reason sensei picked her for this. However he felt this meant a new training schedule and expected to suffer in the next days. She wore the same uniform she had when she came to Middleton last year, and Ron thought he should ask Monique to help her picking other clothes.

The other students saw Yori when she came in, bowed in front of everyone and said she was pleased to attend to this school and was looking forward to the rest of the year with us. Still the same Yori, Ron thought, he was more interested in the other student, the British one.

"And now we welcome, from the Lexington High School, Jarvis Beatable." Barkin finished.

Now entered an average looking boy, even smaller than Ron, who seemed like he didn't care to be here at all. He had short and messy ginger, almost red, hair, wore a black shirt with what seemed to be the name of a band written in red on it as well as a jean jacket and a pair of jeans competed by casual shoes. Both his pants and his shoes seemed like they had seen better days, and his jacket could be considered raggedy. Contrary to Yori it seems like he didn't take a lot of time to prepare himself.

"Hi," he started with a voice that was strangely high pitched "My name is Jarvis and I'm going to spend the rest of the year with you, I hope we can get along." Then he went to sit next to Yori.

"I expect," Mister Barkin started "that every one of you help them adapt to the life here in Middleton. Let's see… Possible and… Stoppable, come here."

Both Ron and Kim came in front of Mister Barkin who resumed "You will be in charge of showing them around the school in order for them to adapt, Stoppable since you went to Yamanouchi you will take care of Miss Setsuna, while Possible will take care of Beatable. Both of you come to my office before showing them our facilities, you are dispensed of first period."

Both Kim and Ron nodded, there was no arguing with Mister Barkin when he was like this. They waved goodbye to Monique and Eric and followed Mister Barkin to his office where he explained them their role (which was mostly to tour them around school and tell the exchange students where they could find what they would need) before letting them go.

Ron took Yori to the cafeteria first while Kim took Jarvis to the gym, Ron chose to get away from Kim a bit so that Yori and he could talk privately about Yamanouchi matters, afterall there was a reason sensei had chosen to send Yori here.

 **Ron's POV**

Once Kim and the other student were out of sights, Ron and Yori greeted themselves "Yori, it's been a long time. How are you doing?" started Ron, "I'm fine," answered Yori, "I must say I missed you too, Stoppable-san, it feels good to see you again."

-"So, how is Master sensei doing, and everyone at school?" they spent some time catching up on the time they spent apart from each other, Yori told Ron about the situation at the School while Ron filled her about the Diablo incident and Kim's new boyfriend.

While he was talking, he couldn't see that one of his remarks had awakened the girl's interest "Kim-san didn't chose Ron-san as her partner in life? He must have felt really bad about it. Maybe this means we have a chance together…" she thought.

Finally Ron ended on his new relationship with Monique, which left Yori completely stunned. "That girl with Stoppable-san? There is no way… How can she even think she deserves him? I'm going to fix this, I decided to pass in order for Kim-san to go toward Stoppable-san but since that's not the case I'll show him which kind of partner the chosen one deserves."

"You coming along?" Said Ron, pointing her toward the classes. She followed him and he resumed talking, "I guess Master Sensei didn't send you here for the rest of the year just to check up on me?"

-"You're correct, Stoppable-san" she answered, looking right into his eyes "Sensei decided it was time to resume your training."

 **Kim's POV**

They were walking in silence and Kim was wondering how she could lighten the situation. This guy wasn't even looking at her, how was she supposed to show him around? She thought, when suddenly…

"Considering the fact you can do anything, I guessed showing me around should be easy but even for you, doing it without talking would be impressive." He started. Kim stopped dead in her tracks, realizing she had been so lost in her thoughts she forgot to detail him the classes they went by. "Oh, shit I'm sorry, let's go back a bit…"

-"No it's ok, I looked on the doors to memorize the classes we went past, it's just it could be much better with some sound." He said with his typical high pitched voice.

Kim started laughing, then she realized it had been a while since she laughed like that, her dates with Eric weren't full of laughs even thought they were full of other things.

-"Yeah, you're right" she answered, they kept going forward, this time while talking.

Jarvis started, "So, I'm being toured around the school by a world famous teen hero, seems like I will already have something to brag about when I come back."

-"So, now that you have something interesting you're going to leave already? I didn't thought your stay would be that short." Kim answered.

-"Nah, unfortunately you will have to endure me for the rest of the year, plus I don't consider things like this to be interesting enough. It's just a tour, nothing especially interesting."

-"Really? What would be interesting?" Kim asked.

-"I don't know." He answered, "Maybe something like how did Kim Possible became a teen hero." He said after a bit of thoughts.

-"It's nothing really special you know," she answered "I created my website to offer my help for babysitting and things like that, then the first hit we had was from someone trapped by his own security system, I went and helped him, since then I kept getting these kinds of requests."

-"And you think it's nothing special? Most people would have ignored this kind of request or called the police, you went and, more important, you succeeded. That's huge." He paused before asking "Why did you decide to take that request?"

-"I was going to refuse it when why best friend, Ron Stoppable, told me I should go and help this guy, that's all." She answered.

"Stoppable…" he thought, "that's the guy who is touring the Japanese girl?"

-"Yeah, and he's also my sidekick during missions" she added.

-"Oh yeah," he reacted, "that blonde we sometimes see on TV with you?"

-"That's him," she said "we should go, second period is starting soon. Your class is… over there." She said pointing him in the right direction.

-"Thanks," he answered "hum, do I see you at lunch?"

-"Sure," she answered before quickly adding "I'll introduce you to my boyfriend if you want, he's the quarterback of the football team, I'm sure he can introduce you to some people."

-"Great, see you at lunch then" he said while the bell was ringing the end of the first period.

-"See you." She answered before going right into the crowd of students in order to find Eric. Something was puzzling her but she couldn't point it, she found Eric and he started questioning her about the exchange student, it's only when they entered their classroom that she managed to understand what was puzzling her.

Eric and she had been dating for more than 6 months and after all this time, Eric had never asked her how she became a teen hero. Or anything really personal for all that mattered, sure he was asking her how she felt was really nice, charming and sensitive, but during all their 6 months of dating he never asked her a single personal question.

That's what was puzzling her, especially due to how close they were since recently. She shook her head. Who cared if he asked her those questions? It only meant he wasn't intrusive of her private life and was waiting for her to talk about it, that's it. She pushed away that wave of uneasiness which stayed at the back of her mind, hidden but still here. Waiting for other developments to occur.


	11. Chapter 11 : Family talk and Uneasiness

**(Hey guys, sorry but next week I will be somewhere where there is no internet so this will be the last chapter (or maybe I'll be able to write one tomorrow) before Saturday. However that doesn't mean I won't be able to write so I'll deliver you a whole package of chapters on Saturday. As usual keep on reading and reviewing, I really enjoy reading your reviews.)**

It had been two weeks since the exchange students had arrived at Middleton High, Ron had no time to spare since Yori has started his training. She was a strict teacher, not as strict as sensei or the lunch lady at Yamanouchi but still a strict one. She had no mercy for his sore muscles and pushed him to practice his skills until complete he was completely exhausted.

That combined with the time he saved for high school, homework, cooking, his friends, Monique, and his ritual with Kim Friday evening. Yori wanted him to go even further but he stood his ground, saying that he wouldn't let everything down for the sake of his training. He had managed to convince her by telling her that if he let everyone down to train with her, people would be suspicious and Yamanouchi couldn't take that risk.

Contrary to Ron, Kim had a lot of free time. She was still part of a lot of clubs and associations but the villains seemed to be calm and Eric was spending a lot of time practicing with the football team even after school. At first, she tried to spend this time with Ron but she ran into Yori who told her "Stoppable-san had no free time left for her or anyone else." At school she asked Ron about this who told her it was "Ninja business" and that he was short on free time, which had to be split between her, his friends and Monique.

Kim ended up slightly bored at home, without much to do, which wasn't really good for her. Monique at her job, Eric his football practice, Ron his ninja training and she couldn't find anything to do. And when Kim was bored, the whole family could see it during dinner. Kim was starting to be irritated quickly by everything and her family couldn't handle this situation until her mom decided it couldn't go on.

-"Kimmie, it's not because your boyfriend doesn't spend as much time he used to with you that you have to vent your frustration on us. I won't accept it." Ann started, an angry look in her eyes after Kim had lashed out, again, at the tweebs.

-"I know mom, it's just Eric is busy with practice and I feel restless just wandering around here." Kim answered.

-"Then why don't you spend some time with Ron, we didn't see him much lately." She said with a hint of reprobation in her voice.

-"He's also busy, and so is Monique, everyone has their own thing and I feel like I'm doing nothing, it's driving me crazy." Kim answered.

Her brothers started laughing.

-"What's so funny?" Kim asked with a snarl in her voice.

-"Nothing it's just…" "Now you know how Ron feels all the time when you're here…" "So maybe you will be a bit more comprehensive." They said.

Kim had a puzzled look on her face so the tweebs continued talking.

-"You always tell Ron about what you do …" "Saving the world, cheerleading, Honor roll student…" "But you never asks him about him or what he does…" "Even more since you and Eric are dating…" "It's always Eric this, Eric that, this date was magical" Tim said with a sarcastic imitation of Kim, "Especially since Ron and Eric don't like each other that much…" Jim added "Now you know how it feels to be on the side line." They concluded together.

Kim had never seen things from this angle and felt bad about herself, about how she treated her friends. "But I can't just go and see him now, especially considering how busy he is recently."

-"Then why don't you invite him over for Christmas, Christmas break is coming soon, it will be a good occasion for you to talk together, as you used to do." Ann said with a smile.

-"Thanks mom, I think I'll do that." Kim started to get up before stopping herself. "Eric and Ron don't like each other that much you said?"

-"Well it's not like they have much in common, except for you" Jim said.

-"Then why can't Eric also come for Christmas? It will be a good occasion to introduce him to you properly and for him and Ron to get closer." She said, totally excited.

-"I think…" Ann started with a worried look on her face.

-"I think it's a great idea Kimmie," James said, interrupting his wife, "this way you will show both of them how important they are for you."

-"Yes," Kim shouted a smile on her face.

James noticed the look on her wife's face and whispered to her "What? Is it a bad idea?"

Ann raised her eyes to the sky, "Boys will always be oblivious" she thought before looking at the picture of a goofy blonde kid and a red haired girl with braces. She never stopped thinking about how close Kim and Ron were that time, and when she understood how Ron felt about Kim she started hoping. Now it seemed like this vision was getting further and further away every day.

-"But that doesn't solve my problem about me having nothing to do." Kim said, pouting.

Ann, then, got an idea "Kimmie don't you think you are being too centered on yourself? You keep hanging out with the same people, maybe you could try to get to know someone else."

Kim thought for a second before smiling, "Yeah, there is that exchange student that arrived some time ago, I talked with him while showing him around the school and he seemed really nice."

-"That's it." Ann answered "Maybe you could show him around Middleton, he must feel lonely away from his friends."

-"Yeah, I'll ask him tomorrow at school. You rock, mom, as always." Kim finished as she kissed her mother.

The next day, Kim found Jarvis eating alone during lunch break.

-"Hi, you mind if I sit here?" Kim asked.

-"Sure, not that I have a lot of company." He answered weakly.

-"So," Kim started, "how is it going? Anything interesting happened?"

-"Define interesting," he said with a sad tone in his voice "I learnt that I was probably going to think this exchange is going to last way too long."

-"Why that?" Kim asked, "You don't like Middleton?"

-"That's not the problem." He stated firmly.

-"Then what's the problem? Tell me, maybe I can help." Kim said with a confident smile.

-"That's nice but I don't think you can." He answered with a smile.

-"Bold answer considering I can do anything." Kim answered. "Come on, tell me."

He paused for a second. "Kim, look at me." She was lost "What do you see?" he continued.

"I don't get what you're trying to…" Kim started

"Kim," he interrupted her "I'm short, I don't have muscles, one could say among boys I'm the kind of guy that stand out in the wrong way, and to end this description, I have my voice which is closer from a girl's voice than a normal guy's voice." He paused for a second. "So I'm not the kind of guy people instantly want to hang out with, now about my tastes. I don't like Football, don't like Baseball, and don't like Basketball, which means I am excluded from 95% of the sport's conversations. I don't like the "Oh Boyz" or any of these groups you guys are crazy about, so music is a problem too. I can watch action movies and enjoy them but it's still not the kind of movie I want to see if I have a choice, so this also kills the discussions about movies. And finally I don't know anyone in this freaking city. So, how am I supposed to make some friends when I obviously don't like what people here like and don't know anyone?" There was sarcasm in his voice but also a genuine sadness which touched Kim.

-"You make it sound like it's almost impossible to get close to people." Kim said.

-"That's exactly what I mean," he answered, "even in London the "School hierarchy" wasn't that strong. Here, jocks stay with jocks, geeks with geeks, and so."

-"You're harsh," Kim replied "it's not really like that."

-"Really? Let take you as an example, you're the head cheerleader, honor roll student and probably one of the most popular girl at school, if not the most, and you date the quarterback of the football team, hang out with the other cheerleaders and the members of the football team. Only the most popular students."

-"You forget about Ron, and Monique, I don't only hang out with the top of the "food chain"," Kim answered slightly hurt.

-"Honestly, I count Monique as part of the top of the chain, she's beautiful, smart and queen of gossip, as for Ron, you said he was your best friend since pre-K but I didn't see you spend more than 5 minutes together." Jarvis replied.

Kim felt like someone had punched her straight in the chest, her lungs emptied of all the air they contained. "But it's not like that," she said "I don't date Eric because he's the quarterback, I date him because I like him, that's all, nothing else."

-"Since you spend all your time with him, you should be able to tell me about him, what he likes, what he hates and all these things couples share." He said. "That shouldn't be hard since you spend almost all your time at school together."

-"He…, He…." Kim started to stutter. Then the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch break.

-"I will wait for your answer tomorrow." Jarvis concluded.

Then he left. Not Kim's uneasiness.


	12. Chapter 12 : Coming to a Decision

**(Hello guys, Good news is I'm back from this place where there is no internet, which explains why I couldn't post any chapter. Bad news is, I'll have to go there again next week so, here is the load of chapters I wrote while being there. I'll do the same thing next week. The following chapters are going to be centered about Kim for a while, poor Kim has to evolve too. Enjoy.)**

 **Kim's POV**

Kim couldn't get her conversation with Jarvis out of her head. There were two things that bothered her, the first one was what he told her about the Middleton High School's food chain and the impact it had on her life.

The following days Kim tried to look at how the groups of students were composed outside of class, who was hanging out with who and who was dating who. It took her only one day to understand what Jarvis meant during their conversation. Saying there was no mixed groups was an understatement. Exactly as he said, cheerleaders were hanging out with cheerleaders, jocks with jocks, and the list kept going on.

Of course there were exceptions. Well if she wanted to be truly honest with herself there was ONE exception. An exception composed of a genius in a wheelchair, a popular golden haired artist, a platinum blonde cheerleader, a dark skinned gossip queen, a Japanese transfer student who happened to be a ninja and a goofy blonde boy. Why exactly were those ones hanging out together, no one knew. Worse, she didn't know. When one of them was her best friend since pre-K.

She realized that ever since she started dating Eric she started to distance herself from Ron. Not that she wanted to, Friday night was still their night and they still had missions together, but that was it. Eric just seemed to take all of her time. When was her last shopping trip with Monique? When was her last night out with her best friend?

She took a look at her texts with them and she had to go back to weeks ago to find a conversation that wasn't plain. Her phone that always had a few number of contacts was now filled with Eric's partners in the football team or their friends and girlfriends.

She tried to take a deep breath and stop thinking about this but she couldn't. It was as if now that she had seen the truth she couldn't take her eyes off it.

It had been weeks since she had lunch with Ron or Monique. She didn't even ask them how they got together, or if they were doing okay. She didn't even know how he became friend with Josh and Tara. She didn't ask him how his training with Yori was going on, or if he could use some help. No, her entire life had revolved around Eric lately.

She thought about Ron, about his breakdown last year when she and Eric started dating. About his insecurities related to her leaving him. Had he seen that coming? Considering the fact that this breakdown didn't happen again even though she completely let him down, should she think he got over his insecurities? Or worse, that he accepted them growing apart from each other.

She didn't pay any attention to the classes, Eric or anyone else. For the first time in months (if not years) she went home alone and went straight to her room.

"Is this what I want to be?" The girlfriend of the star quarterback of the football team that saves the world with the guy that used to be my best friend. Wasn't she becoming just like Bonnie? In a more insidious way, sure, but still a similar person. The kind of person that is popular and only hang out with the popular guys, no matter how friendly and nice to me are the others.

She went outside and started to hit the tree where the treehouse was located. Their treehouse, to her and Ron. Eric kept asking if he could come with her in it but she always refused since this place belonged to Ron and her. She realized she hadn't climbed in it since the start of their senior year. She kept kicking and hitting the tree no matter how much pain she felt in her legs and fists. She was angry. And disgusted.

Angry at herself for letting down the ones who always stood by her. The ones that never let her down. Ron was the one who pushed her to ask her crush out in their sophomore year, and he even went to the other side of the continent to find her a flower that allowed her to finish her date.

Monique was always here when she needed to talk and always lifted her spirits up when they talked about things she couldn't discuss with Ron.

And she let them down. Worse, she slowly pushed her out of her life, like they didn't matter, like she could discard them. Like they had been replaced.

She felt disgusted. Disgusted to have become the same kind of girl she loathed more than anything. What was the point of dedicating her life to helping others if she couldn't even protect the bonds that mattered to her?

She stopped hitting. Her legs were sore, one of her fist was bleeding and the other felt numb but she felt good. She hadn't felt good like that in months.

She went to the bathroom to find the first aid kit her mother kept here, then as she was eating dinner, her dad asked her what happened to her fist.

She answered smiling "Something good, something really good."

James Timothy looked at his wife, he didn't understand what his daughter was talking about. How could being hurt be a good thing? But Ann wasn't looking at him. She was looking at her daughter. Her daughter that had a bandaged fist, some parts of her other fist were starting to turn blue, her legs seemed sore, even a bit shaky but that didn't matter. For the first time in months, her daughter seemed back to her usual self.

Even though she felt pain in all her limbs, Kim never complained, she exchanged a look with her mother who gave her a discrete nod. Kim felt relieved, she didn't know how her mother managed to always perfectly understand her but, for once, she didn't complain about it. She was completely focused on something else. It was also the first time Eric wasn't in her thoughts: she had more important things to think about.

She had friendships to save, one being a lifelong one. She had acted like a total jerk to both of them, she didn't know how long it would take for both of them to forgive her but she didn't care. She only knew she wasn't going to lose any of them. She went to bed with a smile on her face: it would probably be hard to restore both relationships but she didn't care about the difficulty. She was going to save her friendship with both Ron and Monique, difficulty and time didn't matter.

She was Kim Possible, she could do anything.


	13. Chapter 13 : The Way Back

**Ron's POV**

For the first time in years, Ron was enjoying his life at Middleton High. He had an awesome group of friends, a smoking hot girlfriend, his grades were coming up, and for the first time since the beginning of his high school years Mr Barkin was leaving him alone.

His only problem was the absence of his lifelong best friend. Sure, he expected the time they spent together would be reduced but he didn't expect to be pushed out like this. Sure they were still seeing each other every Friday (it was their tradition after all) and they still had missions together but they weren't as close as they used to be.

Kim was spending almost all her time with Eric and his friends, to the point she even neglected Monique. That wasn't like Kim at all. However his conversation with Eric after the match kept coming back in his mind, Eric saying his friendship with Kim was an anomaly and bound to vanish as soon as they left High School. Finally it seemed like it didn't even last until the end of their High School years.

Ron felt sad, torn apart and angry to be discarded like that, like he was an unnecessary item that had been replaced with a "new model". The "new model" being datable, handsomer, and less goofy. He also couldn't help being disappointed in Kim, he had really hoped she was better than that, but it seems like he was wrong.

"I guess Kim really can do anything, Monique said him, even push us out of her life." Monique told him as they were on their way to the cafeteria for their lunch break. She had taken this really hard, Ron knew how much Monique valued her friendship with Kim, being casted aside like this made her feel betrayed.

They joined their friends at a table and started to smile, true it was hard but Ron didn't break like last year before the prom, this was mostly due to the help of his friends. Josh, Felix, Tara and Yori were doing their best for them, knowing how important Kim was for them. Yori had managed to joint their little group without any problem and Ron was thinking the harsh training she was giving him was probably to prevent him from thinking about Kim too much. For the first time he had won against Felix in a Zombie Mayhem game, but he suspected his friend to have let him win to cheer him up. Josh and Tara were showing them the places where the "cool guys" of the school were hanging out, and were always here when the others needed to talk.

Tara was the only one who knew about Ron's true feelings about Kim, Yori was having some doubts but nothing concrete, and Ron was grateful to her for not telling anyone about it.

They joined them and started eating when they heard an argument. Nothing new at Middleton High, but this was different since the ones arguing were Kim and Eric.

Ever since they started dating, Kim and Eric had always looked like the perfect couple, always together, always handsome, always smiling, this was the first time ever they were seen arguing with each other.

-"Come on, Kim, we are eating here, near the window, with all the guys and their girlfriends. Why don't you want to join us?" Eric pleaded.

-"It's not about that Eric," Kim stated firmly "it's about something I have to do. Something necessary."

-"At least let me come with you, we're dating, if something is important to you we should it together." Eric answered.

-"No." Kim's answer was final, Ron knew this look in her eyes, whatever Eric and she were talking about she wouldn't budge. "It's something I have to do alone. Don't worry I will be close, but please, Eric, it's something I have to do."

Damn, whatever they were talking about Kim seemed pretty serious about it. However it was nice to see Eric and Kim disagree on something, Ron couldn't help but smile when Eric joined his friends who had already started eating, alone.

Kim started walking in another direction. Wrong. She was walking toward them, he could see her eyes were completely focused on their table. He quickly showed this to Monique and the others. Kim stopped close to their table, she seemed hesitant.

-"What do you want?" Monique started "Or is it you finally remembered of our existence? Why don't you just leave us alone and go back to your boyfriend and new friends?" Anyone could hear the anger in Monique's voice, an anger directed straight at Kim.

Kim didn't answer, the whole school thought this was it, this was the moment Kim Possible finally officially distance herself from the group of losers she used to call her friends. It's not like she belonged with them anyway. Josh and Felix could see the smile on Eric's face at his table.

However, they all forgot one thing: Kim can do anything, including betraying everyone's expectations at the last moment.

Kim felt the anger in Monique's voice, the suffering, the betrayal, all the things she put her and Ron through. She felt so angry at herself, so stupid, so disgusted that she placed her plate on the table and started crying.

The whole lunchroom became silent. Why in the world was Kim crying? Even Ron and his friends were shocked.

-"You're right." She said after wiping her tears "I let you down, not only you but also Ron. I had no intention to do it but that's what I did. Since the moment I started dating Eric I also started to neglect both of you. My best friends."

Her speech was interrupted by her sobbing, she paused before starting again, in front of a shocked Eric and the emotionless face of her friends "I was so immersed in this new relationship that I forgot the old ones, I forgot the people that always stood by me, even in the hardest moments."

She locked her eyes into Monique's, "You were always here when I needed to talk, when I needed advice, or just when I needed a friend by my side, and I realize I never gave you anything worth this."

She turned away from Monique and faced Ron but didn't look into his eyes. She couldn't face him, not after the way she treated him over the last weeks. "Ron…" she started "Yesterday, Eric told me everyone looked up to me at Middleton High. Maybe it's true, maybe not, but I know I wouldn't be the person I am if it wasn't for you. You are the one that pushed me start crime fighting, you are the one who pushed me to ask my crushes out…" she stopped for a moment "I know I couldn't be able to do even half of everything I do without you watching my back. It's you who gave me the courage I needed in that storage room and…" she lifted her head and looked at him in the eyes "It was you who reached out this little bullied red haired girl back then." She concluded in a whisper.

She took a deep breath, "I never thought I would act the way I did toward any of you two and I would completely understand if you would choose not to forgive me considering the shitty friend I've been lately but…" tears started to get into her eyes again "I don't want to lose any of you…" she started crying again "So I wanted to tell you, if there is one chance you could forgive me for how I acted over the last months, I'm ready to do anything in order not to lose you. Because whatever I have to do, I know keeping your friendship worth more than that."

Monique was crying too now, she got up and pulled Kim into a tight hug, telling her that she was sorry for talking about her like that, that she would always be here, as long as Kim still considered her as a friend, but it was Ron Kim was watching. It was his answer she was waiting for, more than anything.

 **Ron's POV**

Kim's declaration had greatly shacked him, until now he thought he had lost her and now she was standing in front of him asking for his forgiveness. Then, a thought popped into his mind. She would leave Eric. Right now, if he told her it was the condition for them being friends again, as they used to be, she would leave him. And maybe, later, he could have a chance with her, and would finally win against one of the hotties that constantly called him a loser.

That sounded tempting. Then he remembered. He remembered Kim's smile when she realized her was real, he remembered her smile when she was telling him about her dates with Eric, he realized that, no matter how much he hated that guy, Kim was happy with him. Even if, if their situation were reversed, Eric wouldn't even question himself before using such a petty trick, he had o be better than that and think about his friend's happiness.

He looked at her in her eyes "Just promise me…" he started

-"Anything." She answered without a bit of hesitation.

-"Promise me you'll never push us away like you did again," he replied with a smile on his face "It was way too hard for everyone not being able to laugh at your designer label obsession."

Kim froze for a second before starting to laugh, she couldn't stop it, it was only now she realized how much she missed him and his goofy side, his optimism and his positive thinking. How much she needed him in her life.

He joined her and Monique in their hug and stayed like this for a while. They didn't care who had heard this or if people were watching, nothing else mattered but this moment. Finally, they had found the wat back to each other.

Eric was gripping his chair to the point his knuckles were white. What the hell was Kim doing with those losers? She didn't belong with them, she belonged with him, and the top of the brass.

Kim gave him a quick sign before sitting between Ron and Tara, she had a lot of things to catch up. Fortunately, now that they were back together they had all the time they needed.


	14. Chapter 14 : Who is Kim Possible ?

**(Incoming character development (what a surprise) so I had to invent some things that weren't said in the show about the main characters. Feel free to correct me if I made a mistake or if you want to add something.)**

Ever since that day, Kim had vowed to not repeat the same mistakes, she was seeing both Ron and Monique a lot more than before, even though not as much as she did last year because she had a boyfriend.

A new routine started to settle, Kim would split her lunch periods between Eric and his friends and Ron's group. She started hanging out with them after school again, and she caught up with everything that had happened over the past months.

She also began spending time alone with both Ron and Monique again. With Monique they would go on shopping trips, gossip about their boyfriends and enjoy the kind of girl talk Kim hadn't enjoyed since ages ago. With Ron they would mostly spend their time talking in their treehouse which started, again, to become their meeting place.

Kim couldn't believe she didn't see how much Ron had changed until now. Sure he was still his own geeky, goofy self with his "never be normal" attitude but he seemed to have found a new source of confidence in himself. The comments from others didn't seem to affect him as much as they used to and his opinion on things was less childish.

He was also becoming a better fighter, after a quick sparring session she could see Yori's training was definitely paying off even though he couldn't beat either her or Shego he could probably hold the green-skinned woman off her during missions which would make the missions way easier.

It was as if Ron had suddenly matured right in front of her while not losing himself. She couldn't say she had managed to do the same thing considering how close she was to lose her friends a few days ago.

Yeah, she could understand how he had managed to catch Monique, Tara, and probably Yori's interest.

Kim's only problem was she didn't manage to find an answer to Jarvis's question. She liked Eric, she was sure about it. She liked their dates, she liked the time they spent together, she liked how charming and sensitive he was but she couldn't find any common interests between them.

He liked football, chatting with his friends, action movies, and was a bit of a show off.

She liked cheerleading, helping people, aaannnddd…

That was a question she never asked herself: how would she define Kim Possible?

Monique is a Dark-skinned girl that loves fashion, likes spicy food, and enjoys going to see catch fights and romantic movies, her favorite music is Heavy Metal. On her free time she likes to design the clothes she would like to create once she starts her career as a fashion designer. She is loyal, likes to gossip and can get angry really fast.

Ron is slim blonde-haired guy that loves cooking, likes Mexican food, and also enjoys catch fights and action movies, his favorite music is Classic Rock even though he likes some recent groups like the "Oh Boyz". He spends his free time playing with his naked mole rat, Rufus, working on his cooking, training and helping her saving the world. He is kind, quite goofy but reliable.

That was how she would describe them quickly. Could she do the same thing about her?

What kind of music did she listen? What was she planning to do for her future? What was her passion? Sure, she always thought she would keep the "hero-business" as Ron said and would end up as a Global Justice agent, but was saving the world all there was to Kim Possible?

Was she really that shallow? Of course she also had cheerleading and the school committees but nothing she was really doing for herself. As a matter of fact she would have come to this conclusion faster if she hadn't had so many after school activities to keep her busy.

She needed help about this. Who could she ask? Eric? No, those kind of questions definitely weren't his _forte._ Ron or Monique? No, those ones never had to question themselves to find who they were, that was obvious.

Then she remembered, someone with who she had a discussion about who he was. Maybe it was time to find the one who pushed her to question herself in order to get closer to the solution.

The next day she sat at Jarvis's table for lunch.

-"That was a touching scene you showed us last time." He started "I almost had tears in my eyes." Kim couldn't see if this was sarcasm or if he was serious.

-"I thought about our conversation" she started "and I have no answer to give you." He lifted an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue. "I have no answer to give you because I don't know who Kim Possible is. I don't know what I love, what I'm passionate about, I don't know any of this so it's impossible for me to give you an answer right now."

-"And so you came in order to…" he replied with an interrogative tone.

-"I came because the last time we talked, you talked about being left out because of who you were, so I thought I could get some pointers to find who I am, or at least on how to look." She answered.

He looked at her with a curious look before saying with a cold tone "Why are you coming to see me? You have your friends, you childhood best friend, your boyfriend, I'm sure they would be glad to help you. Besides, it's not we're close friends anyway".

Kim looked at him closely and really chose her words before answering "I came because I thought they couldn't help me while you could. You see it's like they've always known who they were, I'm not like that, I need a different kind of advice and I think you're the only one can give it to me." She paused for a moment "Also, I really enjoyed our last conversation and the one we had while I was showing you around, so I thought we could get to know each other better, maybe we would enjoy it." She finished with a smile.

Jarvis stayed silent for a while before extending his open hand toward her "Yeah, I guess we could try. Friends?" he said with a smile.

-"Friends" Kim answered as she was shaking his hand. "Is that how you make friends? Like a business deal? It looks strange." She said, teasing him a bit.

-"Shut up," he answered. "As for your question, maybe there is something we could try. You mind coming at my apartment after school? I have an idea that could be helpful."

-"Oh so we just became friends and you invite me to your home?" She replied "Sounds mischievous. Why not my house after school?"

-"Deal, see you then." He finished as the bell was ringing, signaling the end of lunch period.


	15. Chapter 15 : Double Date

**(Hey guys, sorry I couldn't post any chapter before that (no internet again), as for the plot if you want to see more of Yori's intentions I think I'm saving this for after Christmas, this fiction is supposed to last the whole Senior year, don't forget. Enjoy the chapter.)**

Kim and Jarvis had spent the evening in Kim's room, even if Kim's parents were surprised to see Kim bring home a guy that was neither Ron nor Eric, Ann was happy their daughter started to see new people.

They mostly chatted about what Kim liked to do and how she could find something she could call a passion. At the end of the evening, Jarvis told her: "I think your biggest problem is that you easily get into a routine and stop looking for new things. If you really want to find something that defines you, you have to keep looking, no matter how long it takes."

-"Yeah, but I don't get how I'm supposed to find something, like that. There are just too many things…" she said, discouraged that their discussion ended without results.

-"You don't have to do this alone you know." He answered with a smile "Sometimes people close to us understand us more than ourselves. If you want some help why don't you ask the ones that know you better than anyone? Your close friends, your boyfriend, I'm sure they would be of

-"You were already of help" Kim protested, "even though we didn't find anything you pushed me to start looking."

-"Thanks," he replied "the last advice I can give you is to not be satisfied with the easy way outs."

-"I don't think my life is about easy way outs." She said with a smile.

-"When it comes to people, a bit," he answered, Kim frowned "Look when you let Ron and Monique down," he continued "it was probably easier to just spend your time with Eric that to try to split it between all of them, just be careful about that."

Kim thought about how she acted lately both the past months and last year when Eric came and took good note of the advice before waving him goodbye.

She thought about how to manage to ask everyone to help her together. This would be hard since Eric unfortunately didn't meddle much with her friends. Then she found the solution and picked up her phone.

 **Ron's POV**

Ron was in his room, practicing his zombie mayhem skills to finally beat Felix when his phone rang. It was Kim.

-"Hey Kim, you ok?" he asked.

-"Yeah, it's cool," she answered "I just thought about something, you remember when I told you it would be nice to have a double date once you would have found a girlfriend?"

Ron felt his insides twisting a bit, he had hoped Kim had forgotten this. "Yeah, I remember".

-"Well, I thought it would be nice to that tomorrow, it won't be often that we have so much free time on Saturday now that we are seniors."

Ron kept looking for a reason to say no when Kim dealt the final blow: "I already called Monique and Eric, they were really excited." Unknowingly to Kim, Eric was more excited by the possibility to show off his relationship in front of Ron that by the double date.

-"Ok, see you tomorrow then." Ron said, resigned before hanging up.

This is going to be hard, he thought.

The next day, Ron and Monique met with Kim and Eric at the mall.

Eric wore a white shirt with a blue jersey that showed off his broad shoulders, he had his arm wrapped around Kim's waist when Ron and Monique arrived. Kim wore a green jacket that was just a bit darker that her green top, it wasn't her trademark crop top since Christmas break was coming around and the days were getting colder.

Monique had chosen to wear a purple an orange jacket on a yellow shirt while Ron stuck with his usual red stripped black jacket and black shirt. Ron and Eric stayed back while Monique and Kim hugged each other, then Monique and Eric said hello to each other while Kim and Ron did the same.

"Awkweird, as I thought," thought Ron as he saw Eric glaring at him while he gave Kim a friendly hug.

-"So, you guys want to grab something to eat?" Ron started

-"I should have known you couldn't think of something that isn't food-related." Eric answered with a smile on his face and a snarl in his voice.

Ron shrugged, this was going to be a long date.

As time went by, Ron found this to be supportable, it was still not enjoyable because of Eric's usual teasing and glaring every time the girls weren't looking.

Eric was talking a lot, sometimes about his relationship with Kim, sometimes to ask things to Monique, or sometimes to just make a comment on something he just saw. He was clearly used to this. Ron felt weird, he wasn't comfortable with talking to Eric about anything and his complete lack of social skills prevented him from talking much.

Monique seemed to have fun, she and Kim talked a lot, probably about their respective boyfriends, but it wasn't like he would do the same thing with Eric, especially after what Eric told him after the football game. He had thought a lot about using the training Yori gave him on the pretty boy, especially considering how much this guy was angering him.

But he was better than that. He would behave, if not for him he would do it for Kim.

The afternoon came to an end and the four High school students sat and ordered drinks to chat after a day wandering in the mall.

Kim, then, started talking "Everyone, I really enjoyed that date and I really hope we will do this again. Now that we are all here, there is something I need your help for."

Ron looked at her intrigued and paid really attention when she explained what she was asking them.

The three of them had different reactions: Monique was wondering how Kim came to this decision, Eric was overjoyed Kim was offering him the opportunity to show he was better than Ron, and Ron was already thinking about what could correspond to Kim.

-"Maybe it would be best to get back to your place in order to do this." Monique offered Kim.

-"Yeah, it would be better." She answered.

The four students headed back toward Kim's house where Ann greeted them while they were heading toward the bedroom where they started talking.

-"Maybe we could start with what you already like, cheerleading for example." Eric started.

-"Yeah, probably," Kim answered weakly.

-"I don't know," Ron intervened "Do you really think you will keep on cheerleading after high school? Sometimes I think you don't enjoy cheering during matches as much as some others, and from what I know, cheerleading gets pretty serious in college."

-"I know, I thought about it too," Kim answered "but I really like what we do during training, these movements we all realize together, as a team, I really like that."

-"Maybe we could try to find something that gets closer to it even if it's not cheerleading." Monique started, "Dance for example…"

-"Come on," Kim snarled "do you really see me in a dance group? I'm not Bonnie…"

-"Is dance the problem or the fact that Bonnie does it?" Ron questioned.

-"I don't know." Kim answered "I know thinking about Bonnie is childish but I saw her dance at the talent show, and I know it's not something I want to do."

-"There are other kind of dance you can try, most of them are more intense that ballet, plus with your physical ability you could do any of them." Monique said

"You could at least take a look. Won't bring any harm." Ron finished.

-"Maybe I will," Kim said "Any other idea that can help?"

The three started thinking until Monique broke the silence, "There is fashion," she said, "Your ideas always help me when I'm thinking about something new, you really have good tastes when it comes to clothes and you really can appreciate a perfect piece of clothing."

Both Eric and Ron remained silent while the girls kept talking about fashion, they had learnt not to interfere in "girl talk". When they stopped talking, Ron had an idea.

-"Hey Kim, I have an idea." He started, everyone looked at him with a questioning face. "Do you remember when we went to your uncle's ranch last year?"

-"Yeah, and?" Kim replied

-"You said you really liked the music we listened when your uncle took us on a ride after we took care of Drakken, maybe that could help."

-"I know," she said, looking depressed, "but no matter what kind of country music I listened after that I never really liked it. But thanks for thinking about it."

Ron's grin became even larger "of course you didn't like country" he said with a smile while going toward Kim's computer while the others were looking "since it wasn't country" he finished while starting a folk playlist.

Kim jumped from her seat, "That's it!" she said "How did you find it?"

-"I just looked for it right now, but of course you would never find folk if you look for country." He replied, teasing her a bit.

-"Thanks," she said, giving him a hug.

They kept discussing for half an hour but couldn't find anything that was significant and so they all started leaving.

Kim looked depressed, so Monique asked her what was wrong.

-"It's just" Kim said sadly "I hoped I could find something more, you know. Something like what cooking is for Ron or what fashion designing is for you, something that could be my future."

Monique couldn't answer that but then, Ron intervened

-"Isn't it obvious?" he asked, Kim lifted an eyebrow, waiting for him to keep going "there is no way you are going to stop helping people the way you do it now, right ? So you just have to figure out how to live by it, whether it means working in an agency or going solo." He concluded.

-"I'm not cut for going solo," Kim answered with a smile "I need someone to have my back."

-"And I will be happy to keep on doing that, if that's still what you want." Ron answered

Kim gave him one last hug as they were leaving "I wouldn't want it any other way." she said, as they were all leaving.

The four of them went to bed with completely different thoughts this night.

 **Kim's POV**

Kim was happy she was starting to figure herself out, she knew asking Jarvis for some advices was the right decision. She should try to include him more in their group, it was hard to see him alone at school all the time, even though he didn't seem to mind it. Ron had been really helpful today, he really knew her better than anyone else "Even better than your boyfriend. Isn't it strange?" said a little voice in her mind. She pushed it away, Ron was Ron and Eric was Eric, if Eric had been her best friend since pre-K he would have known her as much as Ron knew her now. Would he? Would Eric have paid any attention to the little red haired girl she was in pre-k? She fell asleep with those questions swirling in her head.

 **Monique's POV**

Monique went to bed happy for Kim. Her friend was finally starting to think about life past high school. However she couldn't help but think about two things. The first was how Eric had been of almost no help when it came to helping Kim to figure out what she liked and what defined her. Wasn't he supposed to be her boyfriend? The one she spent almost all her time with since the junior prom? For the first time Monique started to question herself about Kim's choice in her boyfriend. The second thing was the way Ron had acted all the afternoon, sure he and Eric weren't friends but the way they completely ignored each other except when it came to teasing suggested there was more than this. "I should try to dig this out", she thought as she fell asleep.

 **Eric's POV**

Eric went to bed angry at the way the evening had played out. Stoppable had completely pushed him out of the discussion with Kim earlier. And the way Kim and he said goodbye to each other? Damn, "This guy isn't going to stay around her after this year, I'll make sure of it" Eric thought before thinking about the incoming Christmas. Kim had invited him to spend Christmas with her family. That could be some time alone with her he could use in order to draw her more toward him and away from that loser.

 **Ron's POV**

Ron fell asleep thinking about how Kim could stay around that pretty boy more than five minutes. He is self-absorbed and doesn't even try to get to know Kim even one bit, the way he was useless when Kim asked them to help her showed that well. He really needed some quality time alone with her, the incoming Christmas was the perfect occasion. "Finally a moment where I'll be able to completely relax." He thought before falling in the arms of slumber.

No one knew how much the incoming Christmas would change everything, in good and bad ways.


	16. Chapter 16 : An Impossible Christmas

Ron finished dressing up for spending Christmas at the Possible's house, just like every year. He was really happy about this, not only about spending time with KP but also about not having to see Eric for a while, his presence was really stressing him and he didn't need that. Not when things with KP were finally looking brighter than ever since the beginning of the year.

When he finally dressed up, he took off for Kim's house, whistling happily: This was going to be a perfect Christmas.

 **Eric's POV**

Eric had never spent a lot of time with Kim's family. Not only the parents worked really late because of their jobs, but Kim also avoided her brothers, that she called the "tweebs" a mashup of "twins" a "dweebs", just as plague. Now he understood why Kim avoided them, they were getting on his nerves really fast with their "inventions" (as if kids of their age could invent something) and the way they kept teasing Kim and her relationship.

The positive thing was that Kim's dad was crazy about him. Literally. Her dad, his name was James, kept on joking with him, talking about how great he and Kim looked and showing him picture of Kim's childhood. As if he was already part of the family. Her mother, however, wasn't as enthusiastic as her husband. Sure, she was polite, and talking kindly to him but it was like she didn't really like him. It was a shame though, because he couldn't deny she was really sexy for a woman in her forties.

"Oh well," he thought, "I'm going to have a lot of time to get her to like me, especially without the loser around." He kept on talking with Kim's dad, waiting for her mom to come back from the groceries when the doorbell rang. Kim was upstairs and Eric thought her mom must have come back from the shop. "Helping her would be a good start." He thought before going toward the door, telling Kim's dad he could handle it. He opened the door with a smile on his face, only to end up face to face with the loser.

 **Ron's POV**

"NO. F******. WAY."

"Why was he here?" Ron thought, "There was no way he would be invited."

-"What are you doing here?" Eric started "If you have something to say to Kim wait for tomorrow, we are going to celebrate Christmas here." He said with a snarl in his voice when he recovered from the shock of seeing him.

-"That's exactly what I thought when I saw you," Ron replied "What the hell are you doing here?"

-"I'm invited of course" Eric answered with triumph in his voice "not your case I suppose."

-"Well," Ron replied "as a matter of fact, it's has been years since I've been regularly invited."

Both of them looked like they had been hit in the face, they just stood here for a few seconds when Kim came down the stairs and saw them.

-"Ron, what are you doing? Get in fast." she said before looking at Eric "and close the door or we'll freeze." They both obeyed but still had shocked looks on their face, Kim couldn't understand why until she remembered something. "Of course! I didn't tell any of you." She said "Ron, Eric is going to spend Christmas with us this year; Eric, Ron always spend Christmas with us since his family doesn't celebrate it. Now come, you guys should sit, mom won't be long."

Both Ron and Eric recovered from the shock and started to settle with the Possible family. Kim was in the middle, Ron was next to the tweebs and Eric next to James when Ann finally came home.

-"Ha, Ron, you came" she started "I'm glad to see you. I started to think you decided to skip the Possible's Christmas."

-"I wouldn't dare Mrs Dr P," Ron answered "besides, I'm too much a fan of your cooking to miss it anyway."

"Mrs Dr P?" Eric thought "He even gave them one of his lame nicknames? Well it's not like I wouldn't mind playing doctor with her but I'm sure they aren't very comfortable with those nicknames."

 **Ann's POV**

"I can't believe Kim can't sense the hostility between those two" she thought, looking at Ron and Eric, "I wonder what caused it but I hope they will be able to behave, for Kim."

-"Ron," she started, "you mind helping me in the kitchen? I could use an extra set of hands."

-"Sure Mrs Dr P" Ron answered cheerfully.

"Good." She thought, "This should prevent them from being at each other's throat for a while, if only James hadn't voiced this stupid idea I wouldn't be trying to prevent this Christmas to explode. He sure is smart when it comes to rockets but not when it comes to people."

 **Ron's POV**

"I am glad Mrs Dr P got me out of here, it'sv starting to be too much for me to handle." Ron thought "Why did Kim invite him for Christmas? It's supposed to be our thing." Then the reality hit him like a truck, if Kim was serious about her and Eric it meant that he would be here every Christmas from now on. When he saw Eric, getting comfortable with Mr Dr P, Ron felt his shoulders fall, as if an enormous weight had been placed on them. Even during the modulator incident, when he brought Kim on a date, Mr Dr P had never been that cheerful with one of his daughter's date.

"So he's popular with both Kim and her family…" he thought sadly, "makes me wonder if I will be able to support this."

Then, someone grabbed his arm.

-"Ron, are you okay?" Ann said.

-"Yeah, I'm fine Mrs Dr P," Ron answered with a forced smile "What can I do to help?"

-"Nothing" she answered, "just stay here and chill a bit."

-"What…" he started

-"Ron, there is something between you and Eric, James can't see it neither can Kim but I see it, I can see how uncomfortable you are so if you need to relieve some pressure, just get into the kitchen and I'll have you covered."

-"What… hum… euhh… Why are you doing this Mrs Dr P?" Ron stammered

-"Because even though Kim is dating someone you obviously don't like and that obviously doesn't like you, you still do your best to be here for her, whenever she needs it. And you don't deserve to endure something like that on Christmas." She said with a smile.

Ron felt relieved, relieved that Ann hadn't figured out his feelings for Kim and, more than anything, relieved that someone in this house could see through him well enough to give him the support he needed.

The rest of the evening was uneventful, Ron managed to let out some steam and actually enjoyed some moments.

Of course he couldn't know that this Christmas would be counted as one of the worst of his life.


	17. Chapter 17 : Breakups

**(Hey guys, this chapter really was long in the making, I kept on rewriting thing so I would enjoy if you left me some reviews. Enjoy.)**

Then, at some point, Ann said it was time to get dinner. She had prepared some of her specialties in order for this Christmas to be perfect and everyone took his seat. Kim was sit between Eric and her dad. Ann was next to James, then Ron was next to Ann and Tim and Jim followed.

Ron felt grateful to Ann for placing him next to her even though it meant letting the twins together, with all the possible consequences. At least there was one person at this table that was genuinely concerned about his evening.

 **Ann's POV**

"I can't believe how Kim and James are acting," she thought "I know it's the first time Eric spend time with us and that we can properly get to know him but Ron is also a guest, it's rude to leave him alone like that for the whole evening. Kim didn't even watch a Christmas show with him even though it's supposed to be one of their rituals."

 **Ron's POV**

"Ok, this is officially one of the worse Christmas I spent here" he thought, "maybe the worst, there is competition between this one and the one when I ruined the Christmas dinner a few years ago."

Then he heard Eric telling Kim, "I heard you joined the modern dance club at school. I hope you like it."

-"I really do," Kim answered "It's so different from Bonnie's ballet, much more dynamic, they mix a lot of modern dances in order to create a new choregraphy and I really like it, even more than cheerleading."

-"Well, good thing I told you to try it then," Eric replied

Ron was shocked, "I thought it was Monique who suggested this to Kim."

Eric laughed, "Ron, I know you want your girlfriend to shine but I'm the one who suggested this to Kim."

-"And I will keep thanking you for it," Kim said, adding a peck on Eric's cheek that made Ron's blood boil. This pretentious guy didn't suggested this to Kim, he wasn't of any help when she started questioning about herself but he had the knack of looking confident when twisting the truth, to the point he pushed people to agree with him even though it was a huge lie.

Eric kept on making conversation during the dinner, and he kept on taking credit for things Ron, Monique or any friend of Kim had done to help her over the last weeks. And Kim just stayed here, smiling, nodding to approve his every words, she was like putty in his hands. Of course, Ron, already angry, kept on correcting Eric even though it meant he looked like a jealous guy. He just couldn't stand by and let this "hottie" take credit for every single thing the others did for Kim.

Then, as the evening went by, Kim said Ron to "stop trying to put down Eric" because "it wasn't like him."

Seriously, what kind of magic did this guy use to make people automatically agree with him? Both Kim and Mr Dr P seemed like they couldn't doubt a thing that left his mouth. Ann seemed to be rather distant with Eric, which made Ron a bit relieved, while the tweebs seemed like they didn't care about it.

Then, it was time to unwrap the gifts. Ron gave the tweebs some video games he knew they would enjoy, he had also bought Mr Dr P some rare DVDs of captain constellation, and he gave Mrs Dr P a book which contained some of his recipes he knew she would like.

Mr Dr P offered him a new video game while Mrs Dr P surprised him with a new set of cooking knifes. Eric had offered Mr Dr P a captain constellation shirt, apparently his passion for this show was no longer a secret for anybody, he gave the tweebs some kind of radio-controlled toy and had brought Ann some flowers.

Then Kim gave Ron the gift she prepared for him, it was a reinforced belt she specially ordered from Wade in order to finally solve his "pants problem", Ron smiled at the thought: it was truly a gift only her could think about. Then he took his gift with the intention to give it to Kim when he was pushed aside by someone behind him. It took him a few seconds to understand what just happened, seconds Eric used to give Kim his gift: it was a framed picture of their first kiss at the junior prom. Kim looked ecstatic at the sight of the gift and pulled Eric in for a passionate kiss.

Ron, looked at them for a second before putting his gift, a diary with videos of all the missions they accomplished together, on a table next to the couple before retreating to another room.

The evening kept unfolding in front of him, but it was more as if he was in a movie theater, watching a Christmas movie, than as if he was physically here. The tweebs had gone to bed and the only person that seemed to be concerned about him was Ann. Kim spent all her time in Eric's arm, ranting about how great his gift was, and James was next to them as he kept calling Eric "his future son".

Then it happened. Ron snapped. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, Kim and Eric was acting lovey-dovey with each other, then Kim said: "It really was a fantastic gift, Eric. With you by my side I don't need anyone else."

 **Ann's POV**

At this moment, Ann looked at Ron, saw him get up and reached for his arm in order to get him back on his seat. What her daughter had said must have really hurt his feelings considering he was the one that had always been by Kim's side. Not the pretty boy that was wrapping her arm around her but the goofy blonde haired boy that just got up from the sofa. She grabbed his arm and tried to get him to stand down, knowing whatever he could say now would only make things worse. Unfortunately, Ron had gotten stronger due to the training Yori gave him and he broke free from her grasp.

 **Ron's POV**

Ron felt Mrs Dr P's hand on his arm but he broke free of her grasp. It was too much. He couldn't handle it anymore. He looked at Kim with an angry look on his face before starting

-"Sure, it's not like there were other people that were always here for you, way before that guy ever stepped inside Middleton." He caught Ann's look, urging him to stop but it was too late. It was as if a dam was broken and the water couldn't be stopped anymore.

-"Ever since you started dating that guy you started putting everyone on the sidelines, not only me but also Monique, Wade and everyone. Even after you said you wouldn't let your relationship drive you apart from your friends you stopped talking to us. And then you started to believe his lies." Ron said pointing his finger toward Eric. "It wasn't him who suggested you to try a dance club, it was Monique, yet he takes credit for it and you don't even see it. You almost didn't speak to me the whole evening and you didn't even take a look at my gift. Ever since you two started dating he started to drive you away from your friends. Don't let him do that" Ron concluded as his voice was breaking.

-"I… I don't…" Kim started when she was interrupted.

-"You keep saying that," Eric started "but it's not your real problem. Your problem is completely different from this and that's why you created all those lies. The reality is that you want Kim all to yourself and you are trying to break us up by inventing those lies."

-"That's not true!" Ron countered

-"Really," Eric continued with a smile on his face "then tell us you have no feelings for Kim."

Ron stopped, looked at the smile on Eric's face and realized "He got me," he thought, "he wanted us to end up in this situation because he knows Kim can easily see through my lies." He took a deep breath and said, "You're right about that point." He took a moment to reorganize his thoughts as he wanted to continue but was interrupted by Kim's voice.

-"What?" She said with a completely shocked tone. Then she got up and looked at him in the eyes. "Then why didn't you tell me? No, forget about that, how do you expect me to believe you now?" she said with an angry tone. "Were all your beautiful speeches about friendship and how you would always have my back just a lie? Did you always hid me the truth like this?"

-"No, I…" Ron stammered.

-"SHUT UP!" Kim roared. "Every time Eric kept saying you had something against him and I dating, something selfish, and I kept defending you only to find out he was right. Can't you even be happy for me that I found someone that care for me? That loves me? No, of course, you had to ruin everything. You couldn't stand the fact that I was with someone else, that's why you created all this nasty stuff about him."

Ron was completely shocked. Since when was Eric preparing this? Did he plan to push him out on this Christmas day? His thoughts were interrupted by Kim's voice.

-"You know Ron, you're my best friend since pre-K but if you're not able to be happy for me maybe it's best if we just end this here."

Ron felt like someone had stabbed him right in the chest, this couldn't be real.

-"Did you even thought about Monique when you started dating her? Did you even had feelings for her? Or you were just selfish, only thinking about you?" She stopped and took a deep breath. "I think it's best if you leave now." She said, the tone of her voice suggesting it was final.

Everyone stayed silent, completely shocked, while Ron took his jacket and left the house, not even looking behind him. He kept on walking, thinking about what Kim had said. Most of it was wrong or twisted but there was something that was true. He had never been loyal to Monique.

He started walking toward her house, he knew she would be here. After walking for a while he ended up in front of her door and knocked.

It was her who opened the door, she seemed surprised to see him. "Hi Ron, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to celebrate Christmas at Kim's house?"

Ron looked at her face for a while before saying "Monique… we have to break up."

She looked like all her oxygen had left her lungs. She stayed her and whispered "Why?" with such a sad voice that Ron broke down. He told her everything about his feelings for Kim that started with the modulator incident and how they never vanished but didn't tell her about tonight.

"I really tried to move on, with you, to forget her" he said with a sob "but I just can't."

Monique looked at him with a sad look on her face before saying "I think you should go." She paused "At least, thanks for… being honest with me." She concluded before closing the door. She fell down against the door and started crying.

Ron went home walking, he didn't know how long he wandered in the streets alone before coming back to his house. His parents weren't here, they had left three days ago to enjoy some holidays. Ron just climbed the stairs fell on his bed and started crying for what seemed like an eternity before falling in the arms of slumber.

"Now I really lost everything." He thought as darkness swallowed him.


	18. Chapter 18 : Starting Over

The end of Christmas break was a blur for Ron. He locked his house and never left it until the start of the second semester. His friends were worried when he said he wouldn't celebrate New Year's Eve with them but he told them he would explain them at school.

Of course, the events of the Possible's family's Christmas didn't stay secret for long, it's not a big city and everyone always ends up hearing about everything. At the beginning of the second semester, the whole school already knew that Kim's friendship with Ron was ancient history, even though no one really knew why a lot of people managed to understand it was related to Eric.

 **Ann's POV**

Ann was still shocked by the events that unfolded that fateful night. After Ron left the house, she had confronted her daughter about what had just happened but she couldn't manage to convince her of her mistake. Kim's decision was adamant no matter the arguments her mother used. Finally Kim declared she "didn't need a best friend that would try to sabotage her decisions instead of supporting her."

Then Ann took a decision: she wouldn't interfere. Her daughter was probably going to leave the house at the end of the year, in order to attend college, and soon later she would be an adult. She would have to face the consequences of her choices even if those choices meant cutting ties with the one that always had her back.

-"I really hope she comes back to her senses by the end of the year." She said when she was alone.

 **Ron's POV**

It was the first day of the second semester, Ron had to leave his house in order to go to school, a school where KP would ignore him, where he would be alone, without his best friend by his side. School really was a shitty place.

When he arrived at school, the first group he ran into was Bonnie and her friends which laughed at him "Hey look, that's the loser. How are you feeling now that possible isn't here to have your back? I told you, you will end up alone, because a loser like you should always have been alone, right at the bottom of the food chain."

Never before an insult from Bonnie had hurt him so bad because, at this very moment, it was the mirror of his own thoughts. He was on the verge of breaking down right in front of her when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Felix with a comforting smile in his wheelchair. Not only Felix, there was also Josh, always looking like one of the cool guy with a reassuring smile on his face. Yori was also here, her face looked filled with genuine sadness but her posture looked like she was ready to jump and smash Bonnie's face. Tara was also here, she was probably the saddest among them due to the fact that she knew the true nature of his feelings toward Kim.

He was going to open his mouth when he saw Monique walk right through Bonnie's group to reach for him, she grabbed his hand and said "it doesn't matter if we aren't dating anymore, we're still friends." She looked at him in the eye "I'm here for you. No," she gestured toward everyone "WE are here for YOU." They all collapsed on Ron for a giant hug.

He felt his heartbeat slow down, his fear left, his pain eased up. It was okay. He wasn't alone anymore.

The first time he saw Kim was during lunch period. His heart literally skipped a beat, she was beautiful in her green jacket and sky blue top that made her emerald eyes shine like gems. He felt paralyzed, unable to move. How could they be in the same room after what had happened on Christmas Eve?

Then, Monique stood up and walked in Kim's direction, a serious look on her face.

She stopped right in front of Kim and told her "Ron and I broke up on Christmas Eve."

Kim looked surprised, she didn't expect that especially since Ron now knew he had no chance with her. "Why that?" she questioned.

"Because he's in love with you." She replied "He said it wouldn't be right to date me when he was in love with you. He said that he tried to move on and forget his feelings but couldn't."

She stared at the red-haired girl that had become her best friend over the past years and said "are you really going to leave him behind?"

"He's the one that betrayed me, Monique" Kim shouted, "He's the one that said all of these nasty things about Eric only because he wanted us to break up. I don't need that kind of best friend. I need a best friend that can support me and my decisions, not one that will plot against me."

Monique stood there, dumbfounded for a while, then started to laugh. Softly first, then hysterically until she couldn't stop it, when it was over she looked at Kim and said "are you really saying Ron didn't support you enough? Seriously you could use any argument but you're not going to convince me with this one." She said with a serious look. "He fights supervillains with you, he stood by you through thick and thin, no matter the hardships, he even went to the other side of the world in order to save you" Monique now looked really angry "AND YOU SAY HE DOESN'T SUPPORT YOU?" She shouted so hard, almost everyone in the lunchroom heard her but she didn't stop here "you know what, Kim? Finally I think it's good that you and Ron split because you never deserved a friend like him. When you think about it whether it was Ron or your parents or Wallace or anyone you always had someone to help you through the problems you met. Ron was always there for you so if you decide to cast him aside like an overused toy then you never deserved him in the first place."

She turned back and walked back to Ron and the others while saying "I hope you enjoy being alone, Kim."

"So you're going to turn your back on me too?" Kim answered angrily "You know what? Fine. I don't need you, or anyone else. Eric and I are going to be a perfect couple and we don't need anyone by our side."

Monique didn't even looked back, only Ron and his group could see she was crying.

Lunchbreak came to an end, so did the first day of the second semester and everyone went home.

 **Kim's POV**

Kim came home with Eric, there was no one in the house, mom and dad were working late and the tweebs were probably at one of their friend's house. They went straight to Kim's bedroom.

Kim was angry "How could she? Monique, my best friend, say those things to me." Some tears started to appear in her eyes "Maybe I was too harsh on Ron, it's the first time he acted like that, I should have talked things out with him."

Eric hugged her tight "Shh, Shhh, it's not your fault that they tried to get between us. You just have to find other friends, some that will keep on supporting you." He was talking with a soothing voice that was calming Kim. Her eyes fell on the wrapped gift Ron brought for her on Christmas Eve. "You're right," she said while pushing the gift to the trash "We just have to move forward, together."

Eric smiled as she said those words before bringing her lips to his and bringing her toward her bed.

 **Ann's POV**

Ann was tired after a long day of work, she couldn't get what had happened during the Christmas dinner out of her head but she couldn't do anything, her daughter seemed serious about Eric, she knew talking to her about it would only create distance between her and her daughter. No, Kim had to make her own mistakes and learn from them, that's what being an adult is.

Still, she went upstairs in order to check on Kim, she opened the door only to find her and Eric asleep in the bed. She sighted, it was to be expected, and this probably wasn't their first time. She looked inside the trash and found some condoms "at least they are protecting themselves" she thought, then something else attracted her attention. It was the gift Ron had brought for Kim on Christmas Eve. She couldn't let this end up with the trash. She grabbed the wrapped gift before leaving the room. She would put it with some of her own stuff, as a reminder of the friendship that existed between Kim and Ron.

 **Ron's POV**

Ron was back to his house, he was still in pain from what had happened on Christmas Eve but it was okay now. Not only because of the support of his friends but also because he was getting used to the pain. These kind of wounds never truly heal, you just learn to live with them. He fell on his bed and closed his eyes his life wasn't only about Kim anymore. Sure it was painful but it was time to move forward. Time to start over.


	19. Chapter 19 : Separate ways

Ever since the Christmas incident, Ron and Kim were barely seeing each other. They were together during some classes but never spoke to each other, they didn't sit together anymore and Friday evening became another moment between Kim and Eric.

They also had to inform Global Justice that Ron wasn't working with Kim anymore. Dr Director was surprised but didn't try to argue against them when they said it was for personal reasons. It wasn't the first time she saw partners break up and it probably wouldn't be the last.

Kim didn't have a full-time partner for missions anymore. Sometimes it was Will Du that accompanied her, sometimes another one of Global Justice's top agent, sometimes even Dr Director.

She seemed to adapt pretty well considering her success rate didn't drop. Ron used this extra time to focus on the three important things in his life: his friends, his grades and cooking.

A few weeks passed and both of them seemed to have found a new routine.

Ron no longer had any expectations considering Kim, even though he was hurting himself admitting this he knew that he and Kim wouldn't stay in touch after high school. She would probably go to the same college Eric would go and they would live happily ever after.

Yori kept on training him, even though she admitted she didn't have much to teach him. The only thing left was for Ron to completely master his mystical monkey power but she told him it was up to him to figure this out. Now they were training together, not as teacher and student but as equals and friends.

The training mainly consisted in hand to hand sparring as well as a kind of game where one had to prevent the other from sneaking past him which was supposed to train them to be stealthy, and finally some moments of meditation.

Through these moments, Yori and Ron started to grow closer. Ron had told Yori and all his friends about what had happened on Christmas Eve at the Possible's house. He also told them about his feelings for Kim.

During his alone time with Yori they both started to share some personal memories, Ron told her about his loneliness when his parents always left him alone in the house to travel around the world, he told her about his despair after the diablo stitch when he missed his moment to admit Kim the feelings he had for her, and he told her about what he went through when he lost Kim on Christmas Eve.

Yori did her best keeping a straight face when she heard Ron detailing what happened during this fateful night. She was angry at this Eric guy, of course, for making up such horrible lies about Ron who never did anything to him but most of her anger was directed toward Kim. Ron gave her everything, his loyalty, his friendship, his unconditional love and she rejected all of that only because of the words of some pretty boy.

"I agree with Monique-san" she thought, "Possible-san never deserved someone like Ron-kun by her side." She looked at the blond boy in front of her, she didn't care about what the other thought, to her he was perfect. "You rejected him, Possible-san" she thought "I'm not going to do the same mistake. As they say, your loss is my gain."

She told him about her life at Yamanouchi, about how excited she was about discovering the outside world since she spent almost her whole life at the ninja school and about her pain of not be able to have a real bond with anyone. "At Yamanouchi, everyone respects me but it's not like I have any close friend, and Sensei is… Sensei. Sometimes I really feels lonely."

-"You don't have to," Ron answered, Yori looked at him with a questioning look. "You don't have to feel like this anymore," Ron continued "you have Felix and Josh, Monique and Tara, you're our friend, not just some exchange student that will vanish from our lives at the end of the year."

-"But they don't know everything about me." She said in a sigh, "it's not like I can tell them about everything."

Ron grabbed her hand "You have me for that." He said with a confident look in his eyes, Yori looked at him and hugged him tight, as if she never wanted to let him go. Then they started their meditation. They didn't let go of the other's hand.

 **Kim's POV**

Ever since the Christmas incident, Kim spent most of her time with Eric. At first she was happy about it, ever since that moment they shared in her room Eric had become the most stable thing in her life. Her dad being, well, himself and her mom being slightly distant, as if she was giving her a cold shoulder. Probably because of what happened with Ron, but Kim wasn't going to go back on her word, how could she give her trust to someone who had acted like that.

But then, her moments with Eric started to lose some of their magic, it wasn't as beautiful and charming as before and she didn't know why. Then she understood why everyone said it was bad to spend all your time with your boyfriend, if you stay with him all the time he can't surprise you and your relationship starts to become pretty boring.

She needed someone to talk to, someone to spend time with that wasn't Eric. However, the problem was that ever since that discussion they had in the lunchroom, Monique seemed like she didn't want to talk to her anymore, and Ron was obviously out. She started to think about some of Eric's friend she could invite but all of them, while it was nice to hang around school with them, wouldn't be real friends. Then she found, she looked at her phone: it was right after lunch on Saturday, he would probably answer. She dialed the number and waited for a bit then he took his phone.

-"Hello…" he said

-"Hi Jarvis, its Kim. Do you want to hang around today?" she said as cheerfully as she could.

-"Sure," he answered "where?"

-"Want to meet me at the mall on 2.30 PM?" she said

-"Ok, see you there," he said.

Kim felt her heartbeat calm down, she still had another friend that didn't chose Ron over her. Friend? That was the first time she thought of Jarvis that way, sure it was nice to talk with him and he gave her some good advices but he never really talked about himself. Can you be friends with someone you don't know?

She looked at her clock, it was time to go if she didn't want to be late, she grabbed her jacket and left the house. She met Eric in front of her door.

-"I came to pick you up," he said with a smile, "Bowling or a movie, your choice." Then he looked at Kim's clothes "You're leaving?"

-"Yeah," she said "I'm meeting with Jarvis, the English exchange student."

-"Really?" Eric answered with a questioning look on his face.

-"Yeah, since my friends don't talk to me anymore I thought it would be nice to have at least someone to talk until the end of the year, after that we'll start anew in college."

-"I'm here if you want to talk, you know" Eric said with a frown.

Kim giggled, "I know but I can't spend all my time with you, it's nice to see other people too." She gave him a kiss "Don't worry, you're my boyfriend, my most important person, that won't change." And she left for the mall.

"I can't believe she's starting again," Eric thought "and with another loser, I guess at least this nuisance will leave at the end of the year."

She was a bit late but she was sure Jarvis wouldn't care about a five minutes delay. She saw him, sitting on a bench, dressed as usual, he lifted his head when he saw her and got up.

-"Hi," Kim started, "I hope you didn't wait too much."

-"No, it's ok," he answered "but first, let's clear some things." He had a serious voice "this isn't a date right? Because I don't want to become your boyfriend's target for vengeance."

Kim laughed, "No it's not, don't worry. I just had some time and thought you would like to hang out."

He sighed "Please Kim, we both know it's not that. You had some time to hang out but since you best friend since pre-K and your BFF don't talk to you anymore you asked the closest person to you, minus your boyfriend. Right?"

Kim froze, "hum, yeah" she stammered "I don't have many friends since Christmas." She looked at him in the eyes "You are always like that? Saying whatever you think regarding the time and place?" She asked.

-"Most of the time yes." He replied "But I learnt it can be a problem with the professors and my bosses so I decided to stop that in front of them."

-"True, that wasn't the smartest thing to do." She said with a smile.

-"So," he started, "What do you want to do? You called me so I thought you would have an idea, especially since you're the one living here."

-"I don't know, maybe we could have a drink and, you know, talk, get to know each other?" she said

-"Cool for me" he answered.

They sat, Kim ordered a diet coke while Jarvis asked for a banana juice. The waiter answered they didn't have any. Ha asked for raspberry juice and got the same answer and finally got some apple juice.

-"Banana juice? Really?" Kim said with a smile.

-"Hey, it's really good. Stop judging people like that, it's annoying." He answered.

-"Sorry," she said "so, what did you do in England? Do you practice a sport?"

They talked for most of the afternoon, Jarvis told her about his life in England, his rugby team, his two close friends, Ben and Victoria which were dating, the difference between his town and Middleton, his passion for music, and how he felt due to the fact he was so far away from home.

Kim told him about her life, how she started crime-fighting, how she met Ron in Pre-K, how she met Eric, how she started to know more about herself since their last conversation, and how she felt since Christmas and the betrayal of her lifelong friend.

Then, they left and both of them went home.

Kim went home happy, Jarvis seemed like a really nice guy, it was interesting to talk with him and they had some things in common like their taste in music and the fact they both didn't have a lot of friends.

Jarvis went home wondering about the "betrayal" Kim told him about. He had seen Stoppable, the dude like Possible that was a given but him betraying her after everything he did for her didn't fit with what he knew about him.

He sighed when he arrived in front of his door, he had two choices: ignore this and be friend with Kim for the rest of the year, endure her douchebag boyfriend and maybe let Kim live with the possible lie of her best friend betraying her, or try to know what really happened, which would either end up with Kim and Eric breaking up or Kim casting him away just like she had done with her former best friend.

-"It's not my business," he said as he opened his door. But he genuinely enjoyed Kim's company and he knew he wouldn't forgive himself if he let her date someone that could not only be an asshole but also a liar that did everything he could to push away her best friend.

"I really hope I'm wrong." He said "well, at least my semester won't be boring, whatever I find after digging." He jumped on his bed and started thinking. "Let's start tomorrow."


	20. Chapter 20 : Meddling

Ron's everyday life started to slowly adapt to Kim's absence. It was still painful, especially since his feelings were still here but he felt like he could be next to her without almost breaking down. He also felt like his life was steadier that he was only relying on Kim. Now he had Felix, Josh, Tara, Monique and even Yori besides him.

Of course, things were kind of different with Yori since he knew she had feelings for him. He knew he was mostly oblivious to girls but that time it was really obvious. Maybe it was the way she acted after training, last time he took his shirt off she was frozen and blushed like crazy when he told her. Or maybe that now he already dated someone he was more aware of girls reactions.

Anyway he told Yori that he wanted to take it slow since he still had feelings for Kim, it wasn't right to go to Yori only because he was rejected. He would only date the girl he liked the most, and he would wait the time he needs to wait to get over Kim.

Outside of these moments, his life was overall great, he was really stepping up his cooking skills, and he had great moments with his friends.

He had started to think that Kim would totally vanish from his life after graduation. Of course, life is never that simple. He was going to the lunchroom in order to catch up with Felix and the other when someone grabbed his arm. Ron felt weird, no one usually wanted to be with him outside his friends, let alone speak with him. He lifted his head to see who wanted to see him only to end up face to face with the English transfer student, Jarvis.

Ron didn't know what to think of him. He spent most of his time alone, like he didn't want to meddle with the other students but he didn't seem to be the kind of guy that didn't give a shit about anything. He sometime saw him talking with Kim and it seemed like Eric didn't really like him, which was a good point. The real question was, what does he want?

-"You have a minute?" He started

-"Well, I wanted to join my friends in the lunchroom. Want to join us?" Ron answered

-"Nah, it won't be long." Jarvis continued, he locked his eyes to Ron's "I spend some time with Kim recently and she told me about what happened on Christmas Eve…"

Ron felt angry, did this guy think he could meddle in other people's business like that? "That doesn't concern you." Ron answered coldly before starting to turn away.

Jarvis gripped his arm, "I didn't finish my question," he said firmly "Did you really try to sabotage Kim and Eric's relationship?"

Ron looked at him before laughing, "Just what do you think you're doing? You don't know anything about me or this school, so yeah if you want to think that I did it in order to get peace of mind, go ahead, but leave me alone." He said before breaking free of Jarvis's grip and leaving to join his friends.

 **Jarvis's POV**

Jarvis looked at Ron leaving "Okay, now he really hates me." He thought. His thoughts kept going "He didn't do it. It's not his way of doing things, plus there is no way he would have reacted that way if he had tried to sabotage their relationship."

He sighted, "well, shit" he said. If Ron had been the jealous best friend that tried to end Kim and Eric's relationship he would have stopped here and gone back to waiting for this year to end. But now there was only one way to look at things: if Ron hadn't tried to sabotage Kim and Eric's relationship it meant Eric was the one who invented those lies about Ron in order to end his friendship with Kim.

"Alright," he thought, "what do I do now? If I keep interfering, either Kim push me out or I push Eric out. If I stay out of it, Kim stay with a guy that lied in order to break her friendship with her lifelong friend."

He spent the rest of the day thinking about those choices, making pros and cons list, and everything he could in order to decide what to do. "She didn't believe her best friend," he thought "why would she believe me?" he really thought about letting go but in end he remembered Kim was the only person at school that was even remotely interested in him, that cared about him even just a bit. Then he thought about how he would feel if Victoria, instead of dating Ben, would have dated an asshole that would have schemed, and succeeded, to push him and Ben out.

Yeah, he owed her the truth, it didn't matter if she decided to believe him or not, he was going to give it to her. Of course he needed to think about how to say it. It had to be done without Eric being here and she had to have enough trust in him to listen to him.

-"This is really going to be annoying" he said with a smile on his face as he headed home at the end of the day.

 **Kim's POV**

Kim kept thinking about her relationship with Eric as she was walking home. Ever since the Christmas incident she felt as if their relationship hadn't moved forward, they kept going on dates, having fun, chatting about school, their friends, Eric's football club but Kim felt like they had already done that.

It had become even more obvious after she met with Jarvis at the mall. They didn't see a movie, they didn't go dancing or anything she did with Eric, they just talked. He had told her about his friends, Ben and Victoria, the dreams they shared, how he was feeling here in Middleton, and how it was different from England. She had told him about her life in Middleton, about how hurt she was when she learnt what Ron had done and when Monique left her, about the way she felt with her mom who seemed to disapprove what had happened on Christmas Eve and how lonely she felt since.

Sometimes she felt maybe she opened a bit too soon. Maybe she told him too much about her too fast, but the truth that she desperately needed someone who would just listen to her, just like Ron used to do. The question she kept thinking about was "Why couldn't Eric be this person?". Of course she already knew the answer: Eric wasn't a very good listener. During all their date he kept on making conversation and she liked that about him, but it was hard to have a moment to talk like the one she had with Jarvis at the mall.

She came home, changed clothe and prepared to come see Eric at the end of his football practice. When he saw her, Eric walked to her, lightly caressed her cheek before pulling her into a kiss. She liked that about him, his tenderness, his sensitivity, and how charming he was. They started walking toward the restaurant Eric chose, Eric telling her about the details of his last practice. They arrived to the new restaurant that had opened last week, everyone was saying great things about it and Kim couldn't help but smile from the way Eric kept on spoiling her. She really liked it.

She saw a sheet on the door "due to our actual lack of staff, some of our kitchen staff will take and bring your orders. We thank you for your comprehension."

-"That's nice" she said "it means we can actually see the guys who prepare our meals."

-"Yeah," Eric said "our table is here."

They kept on talking when someone came to take their order.

"May I…" a voice started before stopping all of a sudden. A familiar voice. Very familiar.

"No, that's not possible" Kim thought before taking a good look at the person that came to take their order. It was Ron.

They were both frozen for a second when Ron kept going with a mechanical voice "May I take your order? Maybe you would like something to drink?"

Kim felt relieved he wasn't acting strangely after the initial shock, but still, that was truly unlucky, for Ron to work here and be the one to handle their table. Kim and Eric both ordered soft drinks and Ron came back to the kitchen.

-"I feel strange" Kim said, "maybe we should ask for someone else to take care of our table."

-"What?" Eric said "I don't think so, we would just bother their entire organization, let's just enjoy our dinner."

Kim nodded and chose something on the menu, trying not to think too much about this awkward situation.

Ron came back with their drinks and took their order, as he started to turn away Eric's fork fell on the floor.

-"Hey," he said "My fork's dirty, I need a new one."

Ron looked at him, took a deep breath, took the fork from Eric's hand and took it back with him.

-"Why did you do that?" Kim asked "it's rude."

-"No it's not" Eric answered "besides I would have done the same with any other waiter, they aren't supposed to let their customers eat with dirty forks."

Ron came back a bit later with their orders, they started eating and Eric called him back as Ron was leaving.

-"What is the problem?" Ron said with a sigh.

-"I asked my meat to be medium rare cooked, that is rare cooked, could you please take it back to the kitchen?" Eric said

Ron looked at him as if he wanted to punch him in the face "Sure will do." He said before leaving with Eric's plate.

Eric saw Kim's look and said "What? Sorry but I really want to eat what I asked, it's not my fault if the kitchen messed up."

Kim rolled her eyes and started eating, no matter how Ron hurt her before, Eric was just being rude when Ron was just doing his job. No matter how you look at it it's just… petty.

The dinner continued and if Eric wasn't as obvious as he was in the beginning he kept on using every opportunity he could use to belittle Ron.

As Eric was taking her home, Kim was thinking about the way Eric behaved with Ron this evening, it was just petty and rude and it had ruined the joy she had when Eric had brought her to this place. Ron, on the other hand stayed calm and professional the whole time.

He shook her head, what was she thinking, it was Ron that tried to ruin her relationship with Eric just because he was jealous. Eric just thought about paying him back, nothing big. Right? Those thoughts kept lurking in her head while she just went to bed. And fell asleep.

 **Jarvis's POV**

It was so easy, why hadn't he thought about that sooner, from what Kim had told him it was the perfect solution. He had taken a phonebook and found the address he needed. He didn't care it was starting to get late, he had to confirm his idea.

He finally arrived in front of the house he looked for, he knocked on the door and waited. An African American woman opened the door and asked him "Hello. What can I do for you?"

-"Hello, sorry to bother you at this hour but would it be possible to speak with Wade?"

Wade, Kim's tech guy who "had the world wired" as she told him when they had talked. If he needed to find out what really happened, it was the place to start.

-"I don't know what you want but I don't think you will get anything, Wade isn't really doing much right now." The woman who seemed like his mother said.

-"Just tell him" he started "tell him it's about helping Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable after their Christmas trouble."

She went upstairs as he waited at the front door.

She came back and said, "Wade is in his room, come upstairs." Wondering who this guy was.


	21. Chapter 21 : Returning a favor

When Jarvis entered the young genius's room, it took some time in order for his eyes to adapt to the darkness that was only lighted by the computer screens. He walked toward the only chair only to find a little chubby black kid in a blue sweater.

-"Hi," he started "I'm…"

-"You're Jarvis," Wade interrupted him, "you are the English transfer student at Middleton high, you don't have many friends but you sometimes hang out with Kim. I already know that, now tell me what you meant by saying you wanted to help Kim and Ron."

"Wow," Jarvis thought, "Kim wasn't joking when she said he had the world wired." He took a deep breath. "I don't buy the whole, Ron tried to break Kim and Eric up." He started "it's not his style."

Wade lifted an eyebrow and looked at him in the eye before saying, "what do you mean by that?"

-"Kim didn't tell you then reason she split with Ron?" Jarvis asked. "She said Eric told her that Ron had tried to break her and Eric up. I don't think it's fitting the character."

-"Of course it doesn't, but I don't think Kim would ditch Ron just like that." Wade said. Both kept thinking and Jarvis ended up saying "We need to know what exactly happened on Christmas Eve, but it's not like Kim or Eric will tell us."

-"I know who would," Wade said before picking up his phone and dialing a number.

 **Ann's POV**

Ann felt upset ever since Christmas Eve, her husband was completely wrapped around Eric's little finger, he didn't even manage to understand Kim and Eric had become intimate already. Ann herself had no problem with Kim being intimate with a boy, she trusted her daughter for not being stupid, what she had problem with was the boy's identity.

She didn't like that Eric, of course she knew high school girl like that type of guy, handsome, charming and popular but deep down she hoped her daughter wouldn't commit the same mistakes every other girl commit when they're young. Especially if it meant casting aside someone that had always been there for her. Add to that the fact that the twins still hadn't forgiven Kim for pushing away Ron, who was like a brother to them, and you ended up with a terrible atmosphere at home.

She kept hoping her daughter would wake up before the end of the year to prevent her lifelong friend to drift away but she was starting to lose faith in that. Those thoughts were rambling in her head when her phone rang. It was an unknown number.

-"Hello." She started "who's there?"

-"Hello Mrs Possible," a childish voice said "it's Wade."

Ann knew the boy that acted as Kim's tech guy for her missions. She wondered for a second how he got her number before realizing he hacked supervillains for a living.

-"Hello Wade. What can I do for you?" she said.

-"It's kind of delicate," he answered "I need to know what exactly happened between Kim, Ron and Eric on Christmas."

Ann froze for a second before asking "Why do you want to know that?"

-"Well," Wade started "We think there might be possibility Kim was… kind of… tricked at that time. But in order to confirm that we need to know what was said that evening."

Ann's heart skipped a heartbeat, a chance to get Kim and Ron back together? It was like a gift from the heavens. Before she answered, a detail shocked her.

-"We?" She said.

-"Hello Mrs Possible," Jarvis said "I'm Jarvis and you could say I'm Kim's closest friend at school right now."

-"Then how come I never heard about you?" She said.

-"Because I'm a transfer student that only arrived this year, and we don't see each other that much, considering the time she spends with Eric." He replied.

-"And yet you say you're her closest friend…" she said suspiciously

-"That should tell you how alone your daughter is right now." He concluded.

Ann thought about it and said, "What you're asking is a really private matter. I don't know if I can trust you enough to tell you."

Jarvis thought about it, it made sense. And yet he still had to know. He took a deep breath and started. "Mrs Possible, when I came to Middleton high I knew nobody. I am not handsome or popular, or sporty or anything that allows you to make friends quickly. And yet your daughter is the only person who tried to get to know me, even just a little bit. I feel like I owe her something and I would like return the favor, if I can. But in order to do that, I need your help."

Ann froze when she heard what that boy said her. It didn't seem to be some kind of trick, just a genuine desire to help. And, on this moment, maybe someone without any tie to Middleton was exactly the kind of guy who could help Kim.

So she told them. How Eric accused Ron to try to break him and Kim up, how Ron denied and said he had no reason to do that, how Eric claimed Ron was in love with Kim, how Ron, after a long silence, had admitted it, and how Kim had shouted him to get out.

-"I hope it helped," she conclude "it was hard to live those things again."

-"Thanks, Mrs Possible, and good evening" Wade said before hanging up. "So," he started "Ron admitted…"

-"He didn't" Jarvis interrupted him "he only admitted he was in love with Kim, not that he tried to break them up. But it was all Eric needed."

-"Then we just have to tell her…" Wade started

-"No." Jarvis said

-"But why?" Wade said

-"Because if she didn't believe her best friend sine pre-K why would she believe us?"

Wade stopped talking and looked at his feet "So that's it? We just let het date a complete asshole?"

-"Of course not." Jarvis said "Now we find something to back us up."

-"But, what?" Wade said.

-"I don't know…" Jarvis said, his brain going 1000H miles/h before looking at the computers around the room. "Kim said you have the world wired…" he started.

-"And?" Wade said, "It doesn't help us."

-"You think you could track every time Eric and Ron talked together? With both image and sound?"

"Of course I can, but that would mean hours of looking at tapes in order to track a handful of moments. It means all the tapes since the diablo stitch until Christmas." Wade said "You realize how much it is?"

-"Then we better start right now." Jarvis said with a smile "you can send some to me too, I'll help."

-"Just what do you want to find?" Wade said, completely lost "it's not like it will help us."

-"Think about it" Jarvis replied "Eric said Ron had tried to break him and Kim up, so if we can prove that, out of all the times Ron talked to Eric he didn't try such a thing…"

-"Then we will show he's a liar!" Wade shouted "I get those tapes right now." He looked at Jarvis before asking "Okay, why are you doing this? You must realize the time you're going to spend on those tapes, it will take weeks. Why do you want to help Kim that much?"

Jarvis looked at him like he was stupid "You didn't hear me talking with Mrs Possible?"

-"Yeah, but I thought there had to be more." Wade replied

Jarvis sighed "When I arrived to Middleton, I was the boring little English student with a high pitched voice next to the beautiful Japanese exchange student. There was, and still is, absolutely no one at school that was even remotely interested in who I was, it was like I didn't exist." He started "Even now, the only person in Middleton high that walks up to me and talks to me is Kim Possible, she helped me through a lot of issues without even knowing it, so now I want to do something for her, even if it's just getting her away from a toxic boyfriend."

Wade looked at him with a smile on his face, thinking how that story was close to the meeting of Kim and Ron in pre-K.

-"What?" Jarvis said "Why are you smiling?"

-"Let's get to work." Wade said, handing him a flash drive with some tapes on it.


	22. Chapter 22 : Shattered Bonds

It took them weeks of work. First they had to find the tapes in which they could see Eric and Ron, which was difficult due to the low quality of the tapes that prevented Wade to use a recognition software. Then they had to go through the whole tapes where Eric and Ron appeared between the diablo stitch and Christmas Eve.

It wasn't a difficult job but it was taking a huge amount of time. Both of them cut short their sleep time in order to manage to wrap this up as fast as possible. Right now they had watched around 75% of the tapes and in none of them, Ron had said anything to Eric that intended to break him and Kim up. As a matter as fact they almost didn't talk to each other.

As he was nearing the end of a tape, Jarvis finally found something. He watched it once, then twice, then a third time to be sure he heard correctly what had been said before rushing to his phone and calling Wade.

-"Hello." Wade said in a sleepy voice.

-"Wade, it's Jarvis…" he started

-"It's the middle of the night." Wade said, "Don't wake me up for new tapes when I'm sleeping."

-"It's not for new tapes, we don't need to look for those anymore." Said Jarvis in an excited voice.

Suddenly Wade was fully awake and on his computer, "Show me" he simply said.

Jarvis sent him the file and Wade watched it once, then twice, then a third time before saying "This asshole is sooooooo dead."

-"Totally, right? There is no way he can talk his way out of that one." Jarvis declared.

-"So," Wade started, "When are you going to show this to Kim? Tomorrow at school?"

-"No," Jarvis answered "I want to do this face to face. This is something that will greatly shake her, I don't want her to break down in front of that Bonnie girl."

-"Agreed. I'll keep track of Eric tomorrow, there is no way I will miss the moment Kim will kick his ass." Wade said with a smile on his face.

-"I bet you'll record it to watch it over and over again." Jarvis laughed.

-"You bet I will." Wade shouted. "Well, let's go to sleep, big day tomorrow right?"

-"Yeah." Jarvis said "Wade?"

-"What?" The kid answered.

-"Thanks for the help. Couldn't have done it without you." He concluded.

-"Thanks you for helping Kim out of this stitch. It was your idea, I only lent you a hand." Wade replied.

-"Good night, genius." Jarvis concluded

-"Good night, savior." Wade answered before hanging up.

The day after, Jarvis couldn't wait for the school day to end. The clocks seemed to be even slower than usual. The truth is, at first, he didn't really care about what Eric had done. It was just a favor to Kim in order to repay her, he thought she had the right to know the truth about her boyfriend but he didn't take any pleasure doing it.

However, the more he spent time comparing Ron Stoppable and Eric, the more he listened to Wade's storied about Kim and Ron's relationship, the more he looked at the scene that was stored on the flash drive in his pocket, the more he was convinced of one thing: An asshole like this guy had nothing to do with someone like her. Especially after what he had done to her relationship with her best friend.

In the end, he ended up being really concerned about Kim and Ron's relationship and the way Eric broke it. That's why, deep down, he felt satisfied about what he was going to do and felt no remorse about what Eric was going to endure.

When the bell finally rang, ending the last class of the day, Eric started walking Kim home. Jarvis walked behind them, far enough to look like he wasn't following them until they reached Kim's house. Then he saw Eric follow Kim inside. That could be a problem. "What should I do?" he thought, "Wait for him to leave or just go like that?" he kept thinking for five minutes before deciding to go for it.

He rang the doorbell and waited, then the door opened and he ended up being face to face with what looked like an older version of Kim, no this version had blue eyes when Kim's were green, he immediately understood who this was.

-"Hi, Mrs Possible, I'm Jarvis, we spoke over the phone weeks ago." He started, hoping she didn't forget him.

-"Of course I remember you, do you want to see Kim? She's in her room but not alone." Ann said with a sharp tone.

"Actually, there is something I have to give her, but it needs to be face to face, without anyone and especially without Eric. Could you call her?" Jarvis said.

Ann looked at him before turning toward the stairs, shouting: "Kim. There something for you at the front door." And leaving him.

Less than one minute later, Kim ran down the stairs and met him. "Hi, Jarvis" she started "What do you want? You have a problem?"

-"Actually," he started "it's about you", she looked at him intrigued "and Eric and Ron, about what happened on Christmas Eve."

Kim was frozen for a second before looking at him suspiciously "How do you know about that?"

-"Off topic," he answered "the point is, your boyfriend is lying to you."

-"Stop saying this, stop acting like Ron did, Eric isn't lying to me, he always supported me." She said completely resolute.

-"Then maybe this can change your mind," he said, handing her a flash drive.

-"What's that?" she asked.

-"Look and you'll see, I'm sure your Kimmunicator can play it." He said confidently

Kim plugged the flash drive in her Kimmunicator and played the only file stored inside it. It was a tape, with sound, of the discussion Ron and Eric had after Eric's first football game. Kim heard when Ron told Eric they should try to get to know each other since they were both important to Kim. She saw when Eric laughed at his face and told him what he thought about him. And finally, she witnessed the moment where Eric said Ron had nothing to do in Kim's life and that they would break up soon enough.

The file finished playing and Kim wasn't moving anymore. Her eyes were glued to the little piece of technology in her hand, she looked completely out cold. After what seemed to be a very long time she looked at him in the eye and asked "Is that true? All of it?"

-"Listen," Jarvis answered, "I don't know Ron as good as you do but do you think the same guy that went to amazon to bring you back a flower to save your life would be the kind of petty guy that try to break you and your boyfriend up?"

Tears started to come out of Kim's eyes when she realized what she did to Ron, what she told him, how she shut him out, leaving him no way to defend himself. Only because of…

-"Jarvis", she said. "You should leave. I will handle this."

Jarvis didn't know that look in Kim's eyes but he was sure it was the same kind of look she had when she was ready to kick some bad guy's ass.

He left the house, took a few step back from the doorstep when he heard Kim shouting, he couldn't understand the words she was using but there was only one word that could describe her state of mind right now: Eric was suffering the fury of Kim Possible.

Jarvis would have given pretty much anything in order to see what was happening inside the house but he just sat outside, enjoying what seemed to be the worst time of Eric's life.

After a long time, Eric finally left the house, his head down, the tail between his legs. It was over. Jarvis couldn't help but smile. Which ended up being one of the worst mistakes of his life. Eric saw him and started to walk toward him. "You!" he growled, "It was you! Why did you have to meddle? My relationship with Kim wasn't your business!"

-"A relationship built on a lie?" he answered, "Come on, Kim is a smart girl, she would have figured out you were lying sooner or later. You can only blame yourself for this."

Then Eric snapped, he leaped at Jarvis which couldn't react fast enough, straddled him and started to beat the crap out of him.

When he felt satisfied, Eric left leaving Jarvis going home on his own. At least he could still walk but he probably should have his ribs checked and it would take some time before the swelling on his face get away. He finally arrived at his apartment, he lied on his bed, thought about the events of the day and thought "Still worth it." Before drifting away in the arms of slumber.

 **Kim's POV**

After she broke up with Eric, Kim suddenly fell on her bed and started crying. She couldn't stop. She was just starting to manage her life without Ron by her side, and now she learnt that her boyfriend never stopped lying to her. So what? Had he always considered her like some kind of trophy? A prize he earned by being the most popular guy at school?

She lost her best friend since pre-K and her BFF while following a liar. Just what the hell had she learnt since the diablo stitch?

Ann heard her daughter and slowly entered her room. She had wished for Eric to get out of her daughter's life but now that she saw the ruins he left behind she was even angrier at the boy.

-"I know you didn't like him." Kim said, "I know you kept thinking I was making the wrong decisions again and again." She was still crying "but, I really thought I loved him…"

-"Shhh, shhh" Ann hugged her daughter, "It's okay, don't blame yourself for the lies of that boy."

-"But, what if I never find someone mom?" Kim stammered "It's always the same, it's like they are never truly interested in me." She sniffed "Maybe I'll just end up alone."

-"No you're not" Ann said resolutely "You're an active, beautiful and intelligent woman, you made a mistake, just like everyone, because you're not perfect but I'm sure one day you will find that special person that will cherish you more than anything. Someone that will always be there for you, in good or bad times. Someone that will stick with you through thick and thin, no matter what happens. I'm sure of it."

Kim looked at her mom in the eyes before returning her hug "Thanks mom," she said.

Ann started leaving before saying, "I'm leaving this for you." And placing what seemed to be a still wrapped Christmas present on her daughter's desk. Kim recognized it immediately, it was the gift Ron had brought for her.

As Ann was leaving, Kim started thinking about the way she treated Ron since Eric arrived at Middleton high. As she was reviewing her behavior she was less and less proud of herself considering the way she treated the one that always had her back.

When she looked back to the night of the diablo stitch and added it to what Ron had confessed on Christmas Eve, his words in the locker room had a whole different meaning. Especially considering the way she reacted to those words. The more she thought about it, the more she knew she was on the verge of asking Ron out to the prom when Eric had returned.

She thought about everything he had done for her, about how horrible she felt when she pronounced those fateful words on Christmas Eve. About how she felt when she heard Ron's words at the BN Headquarters.

She opened the gift, only to find a diary of all the missions they had together, the diary contained videos of their best moments together as well as some written parts where Ron expressed his feelings. Tears started to get into Kim's eyes again.

The words her mother just said echoed through her mind, "Someone that will always be there for you…"

She started crying again, this time for the silly little girl she had been. That girl that had been blinded by the dazzling lights of hotties and football players and popular boys to the point she didn't even see what she was looking for was right in front of her. Always.

But if she wanted to have any future with Ron, whether it is as friend or boyfriend, she had to go and see him now. Before they drift apart even more. She ran downstairs, grabbed her jacket and started running toward Ron's house.

 **Ron's POV**

Ron was feeling good this evening, his parents were out for another trip so he had invited everyone hanging out at his place after school. Felix, Josh, Tara, Yori and Monique were all here, gathered at his place.

He had cooked some things for everyone while they had bought some drinks. The evening was going well, Ron looked at everyone having a great time and realized he finally found the place where he belonged. "I really hope we will stay in touch and always be there for the big moments, even after graduation." He thought.

He was in the middle of a discussion with Tara and Josh when the doorbell rang.

-"Are we waiting for someone else?" Felix asked

-"I'm going to see who's there." Ron said

Everyone was wondering who would come to Ron's place after school and they were all shocked when the door opened, revealing Kim, looking like she had dashed from her house to Ron's place, completely exhausted.

Ron froze. What the hell was she doing here? Ever since the incident on Christmas Eve, a few months ago she wasn't talking to him anymore, since she was spending all her time with her boyfriend.

-"What are you doing here?" he asked in a cold tone. The rest of the group was silent even though they couldn't help but be intrigued by Kim's presence at Ron's place.

-"I came…" she started, she seemed to be looking for her words, obviously uncomfortable. "I broke up with Eric." She finally said.

The whole group, except for Ron gasped, even though Ron couldn't help but being also shocked by the news. The last time he checked, those two were all lovey-dovey.

-"Why?" Monique couldn't help but ask.

-"Because, even though it took me a long time, I finally understood he lied to me. About everything. And I felt really stupid to have discarded everyone who always stood by my side, so I came to apologize. And maybe, if you still want to, we can be friends again."

Monique felt her heart swell when she heard her BFF's words, finally she was realizing what she left behind. She walked forward and hugged Kim while saying, "Of course we are forgiving you. You're our friend, and we would be pretty bad friends if we turned our back on you at the first difficulty. Right everyone?"

Everyone in the room agreed loudly with smile on their face. Everyone started to move forward to show how happy they were.

Then they froze. Ron hadn't moved an inch. He was still looking at Kim. "That's all?" he said. Kim looked like she had been slapped in the face. "What you said on Christmas Eve, it wasn't some joke that you can brush aside and then act as if it didn't happen." It wasn't often you could see an angry Ron but when you do, it was kind of scary, just like now. "You think you can just say those things, act like you did and then just come back, and say I'm sorry to forget everything? I stuck with you through the good and the bad moments, I helped you save the world, I helped you date your crushed, I went to the other side of the world to prevent you from vanishing and yet all you needed was the smile of a pretty boy to push me out, well now you pushed me away: Deal with it."

The whole group was shocked, they never saw Ron that angry. Kim felt tears coming to her eyes but she understood Ron's point, this time she went past the point of no return.

Ron showed her the door: "I think you should leave."

All the group looked at Ron, then Kim, then Ron successively, not believing their eyes, this wasn't real right?

Kim let out a sad laugh, I think I got what I deserve. Just don't forget, I'm not going to let you down again, no matter how far you push me away, I'm not going to give up on you, Ron Stoppable, because you're the best thing that ever happened to me.

And then she turned away and disappeared in the streets of Middleton, leaving the occupants of the house completely shocked and Ron with an indecipherable expression.


	23. Chapter 23 : Like Mother Like Daughter

**Hello everyone, sorry for the long wait but this has been one hell of a week for me and I couldn't find the time to write down anything. Anyway, no further wait, here comes the story.**

 **Kim's POV**

Ever since that evening when she confronted Ron, Kim didn't try to talk to Ron again. Not that she didn't want to, it was the first time she felt his absence like that. As if she was lacking something vital.

She took out her feelings in her diary. The last pages were full of the frustration she felt when she understood how Eric tricked her, her remorse about how she treated Ron and mostly her desperation about their current situation.

She never felt as stupid and as powerless as what she felt right now after all that happened. All her Kung-fu mastery, all her teen hero skills amounted to nothing in front of the stitch she was facing right now. A stitch she had created herself, grown-up style, with her own stupidity. It was like what she had always been looking for had always been next to her until she decided to kick it away again and again and again, no matter how many time it came back to her, until finally, the moment she realized how important that thing was, it was out of her reach.

She kept for herself what happened at Ron's house, even though it meant facing the questioning look of her mother every time she faced her. She felt too bad for confessing what had happened. To make matter even worse, Jarvis didn't come to school for the rest of the week. She didn't know where he was considering he wasn't answering his cell and she didn't know where he was leaving. It affected her even more considering she really needed someone to talk to about what had happened. And even though Monique had started to patch things up with her, she was too close to Ron for Kim to tell her what she was feeling.

The end of the week finally arrived, Kim spent the entire Saturday in her room, not wanting to see anyone, until her mother finally pushed the door open.

-"Kim" She said firmly "we have to talk."

Kim slowly turned to face her, a neutral look on her face. "What do you want?" she said. She didn't want to talk to her mother about it, especially considering the fact she expected her mom to tell her the famous "I warned you". Even though it was probably true, it wasn't what she needed at the moment.

-"Kim," Ann pursued, "I know about what Jarvis and Wade told you about Eric." She paused "I know because I am the one who told them what happened on Christmas Eve."

Kim's mouth dropped, she couldn't believe what she just heard. She had wondered how Jarvis had managed to find out what had happened, if Wade confessed he helped Jarvis through the tapes, she didn't know how he managed to know what happened on Christmas Eve. Now she had her answer. She opened the mouth to answer but Ann started before her.

-"I didn't plan to do this," she said "but when this boy came and told me what Eric might have done, I decided to tell him everything. I was sad about how you and Ron parted on Christmas Eve that I thought if there was one chance that Eric plotted that, if it was true, I would do everything to break you two up, to protect you." She sighed "I hope you can forgive me for betraying your trust like that and telling them things that were supposed to be private."

Kim felt tears coming to her eyes, her mom only wanted the best for her, that's why she acted like that, and she couldn't resent her for what happened, especially considering how she was feeling at the moment. She let go of everything starting with the fight she had with Eric after Jarvis showed her the video of Eric's conversation with Ron.

 _ **Flashback**_

 _Kim walked up the stairs and practically ran to her room, this wasn't possible, Eric didn't do that, it wasn't possible, because if this was true it meant what she said to Ron, the way she treated her best friend, was all for nothing. She would lose everything._

 _She barged into the room to find Eric with a pleasant look on his face that vanished the moment he saw her. "What's the…" he started._

 _-"Is that true?" She yelled "Tell me, what you're saying right now, on this video, it's not true, you didn't really said that to the guy that was my best friend right?"_

 _Eric started to feel anxious. How did she find that? Who gave that to her?_

 _-"No, of course I didn't." He said, "you heard him on Christmas, he told you he…"_

 _-"The only thing he told me was that he had feelings for me, nothing else." Kim felt the anger rising inside her as the discussion kept going "so I'll ask you one last time: is that true?"_

 _Eric thought about lying for a second and opened his mouth to refute what she said. The look on her face stopped him. It would even have stopped Shego's fury. For the first time, Eric felt sorry for the villains who had to endure Kim's wrath._

 _-"He was dragging you down!" Eric yelled "You don't belong with losers like him, you belong with the top, that's why we're so good together: we are the same, we rule over the rest of the school, they want to be like us, to be us, that's how it works. Don't tell me you don't enjoy being at the top?"_

 _Kim looked at him, disgusted, wondering how she could have thought she was in love with this guy who, in the end, was just a male version of Bonnie under a sweet face. "You make me want to throw up." She said._

 _Eric opened his mouth to say something but Kim interrupted him. "get out of here" she said in a whisper._

 _-"What? …" Eric said_

 _-"I told you to get the fuck out of here right now before I lose it!" She yelled._

 _Eric left the house disappointed to have lost his "girlfriend", angry at the one who ratted him out, and scared to death of Kim's face when she yelled at him._

 _Kim just fell on her bed and started crying._

 _End of Flashback_

 **Ann's POV**

As Kim finished telling everything from her breakup with Eric to Ron's rejection, Ann felt even more the need to protect her little girl. She saved the world on a weekly basis and handled so many stitches that sometimes she forgot she was still a child.

-"I don't know what to do mom," Kim sobbed "Ron hates me now, and I can't even blame him for it."

-"Sshhh" Ann said, hugging tight her daughter "It's gonna be okay, you and Ron go back to pre-K, there is no way you two are not going to patch your friendship up, especially if that's not what you want." She said in a reassuring tone.

-"Yeah, maybe" Kim said in a weak voice, she wasn't sure she was sharing her mother's optimistic point of view.

-"You do want to stay his friend right?" Ann said, looking at her daughter in the eye.

-"Well…" Kim started stammering "Yeah…"

Ann looked at her daughter, the way she stammered, the light blush on her face, the way she looked slightly away, she felt tears coming to her eyes.

-"Mom?" Kim asked.

-"Ohhh Kimmie," she started "The two of you are making me really worried you know. You keep getting closer and closer without ever ending up together…"

-"Mom" Kim said with a fierce voice "I so don't want to hear that now…"

-"I know sweetie, I know. But you have to give Ron the time he needs to move past this if you want to have any possible future with him. Otherwise it just won't work out." Ann stated.

They broke their hug and went to dinner.

 **James's POV**

James had learnt over the past few days to avoid to mention Eric's name in order to spend the evening without the angry look of the Possible women. One day he really should try to know what happened. The first time he made that mistake he had been shocked by the way Kim looked exactly like her mother.

And now as he watched the two women in his life eating their dinner he couldn't help but think the same thing. "Well," he thought "Like Mother, like Daughter. In the end they always get what they want. Especially when they have that look on their face."


	24. Chapter 24 : Friendly Conversations

**Felix's POV**

Kim's speech had taken its toll on their little group, the lunch period, formerly filled with laughs and friendly chat was now completely silent, the stares had replaced the laughs and the conversations. There were the ones, such as Felix and Tara that didn't want to take sides in the quarrel that divided the group, saying that whatever was happening between Ron and Kim it shouldn't divide them. Then, there were Monique and Josh, the closest to Kim apart from Ron, who were plain angry at Ron's reaction to Kim's apology, Josh kept saying that Ron was being heartless considering his long history with Kim, while Monique simply refused to talk to Ron after his discussion with Kim. And finally, Yori was completely supporting Ron with his choice of leaving Kim behind, since she didn't act the way a true friend should act.

The animosity between the last four was growing and Felix and Tara felt powerless against it. Monique was especially virulent, two days ago she went berserk at Yori, saying she should "Shut the fuck up considering she wanted to keep Kim out only to get inside Ron's pants." The Japanese girl had answer with an equally violent language, which almost led to a catfight between the two girls which was prevented by Ron and Tara.

Today, as he was going home, Felix decided he had enough so he started thinking about how he could manage to patch things up between the different members of their little group. In order to do that, he took out his phone and made some calls. "With some good will, things should work out just fine," he thought "These idiots are too close to let their pride get the better of them."

 **Ron's POV**

The next day, Ron started walking toward Felix's house, he was genuinely happy of Felix's call. He knew he was trying to break the bad mood that had gotten inside the group since Kim's visit. It was more than time to end this. He knocked on the door and Felix opened him a few moments later.

-"Hi man" Ron said with a smile. "Thanks for your call yesterday, I really needed something to lighten the mood."

-"Yeah, I get it." Felix answered "Want to go in my room to get your usual zombie mayhem beatdown?"

-"Sure," Ron replied "But this time I'm the one who's going to beat you to the ground. You'll see."

-"As if you could." Felix said with a smile as they were getting near his room "You still don't get you're no match for me."

-"We'll see that," Ron replied as he opened the door and got in "I feel like I'm on fire today."

As he finished his sentence, he froze. The room wasn't empty. He just ended up face to face with the person he wanted to see the least these days. He had almost no time to wonder why Monique was in Felix's room before hearing the sound of the door being locked.

-"What the…" Ron started

-"He didn't…" Monique said

They both rushed to the door but they couldn't manage to open it, "That's a genius for you." thought Ron. He had really locked them up together.

-"Felix, open the damn door." Monique yelled

-"Sorry, not before you guys sort things out." Felix's voice said "and before you try anything, I took all the precautions to prevent you guys from leaving the room. So you better hurry up and start talking."

Both Ron and Monique were speechless. For Felix, out of all their friends, to have the nerve to do something like that completely shocked them.

After the initial shock, and the curses that followed they both realized they had no other choice but to talk things out considering Felix had no intention of letting them out.

-"What exactly do you want us to talk about?" Ron said, "It's not as if just talking will stop the tensions inside our group."

-"Oh I think it will, both of you sort things out about that Kim situation ad when you're done I'll let you out." Felix started moving "If you want to call me I'll be downstairs, waiting for you to finish."

 **Ron's POV**

As Felix left Ron and Monique, they understood they had no choice but to play by the rules the genius set up. Sure Ron knew he could probably break the door open but it would cause too much trouble. Also, he knew Felix was right when he said this situation couldn't go on.

He faced Monique sat on the ground and said "So. You're going to start?"

Monique looked at him as if she didn't understand what he just said. "What?"

-"Considering you're the one that have a problem with my decision about Kim, the first thing to do would be for you to properly tell me what's your problem. Don't you think?"

Monique took a deep breath in order to regain her composure "Okay," she answered. "Let's get to it." She sat in front of Ron.

"I just don't get it," she started "sure she made a mistake, a big one, probably the biggest of her entire life, when she chose Eric over you, but you two have been together since pre-K, I can't remember of any day where you didn't talk, called each other or sent mails. You saved the world together, survived battle against supervillains together, I just can't believe a stupid high school fight is going to break that." She locked her eyes into his "One mistake? Is that all it takes for you to end a lifelong friendship? Then what's next? You're going to kick out the next one that disappoint you? No forgiveness?"

Ron took a deep breath and let Monique's words sink inside of him. "Maybe that's the way you see it, but I can assure you it's not the first time it happens. It's always like that with Kim, whenever a hottie is around I always end up on the side of the road. It was like that with Josh on the day of the spirit dance when I ended up locked in the janitor's closet. It was like that when she decided to go on a date with him despite the fact she could end up disappearing while I was looking for a cure in Amazonia. It was like that last year when Eric arrived to Middleton before the Diablo stitch, when she basically stopped seeing me in order to spend more time with her "Golden boy" and it was the same on Christmas Eve when she chose to believe him over me." He let out a sigh, "What I'm trying to say is that this wasn't a lonely incident, it was just Kim being Kim, and I'm tired of being the one that end up hurt because of her."

Monique could see the pain in her friend's eyes. For the first time she realized how much it costed him to make such a decision. She went for a last try "But, can't you at least give her one last chance? Not welcoming her back with open arms but at least leaving the door open? That way if she decides to change maybe she could come back."

-"No." Ron's word was final, even Monique could see that, maybe a little too much "But why?" She yelled "It's not that hard…"

-"Yes it is." He yelled back. "It is precisely because she was my best friend since pre-K, because we saved the world together, because we were that close that letting her getting back would be too hard for me. If I start spending time with her again, I know I'll end up forgiving her and letting her come back, and if I do that it will happen all over again, just like before. And I don't know if I could handle it."

Monique looked at Ron, he was trebling, his fists were clenched, he even had some tears in his eyes, and then she understood, "You love her…" she started "And you're afraid that if you let her come back she will keep hurting you." She paused "But, Ron, if you don't come to terms with your feelings, if you keep bottling them like that you'll never be able to move forward. Would it really be any better?"

Ron had a sad laugh, "Monique," he started "Anything can be better that what I felt on Christmas Eve, I'm ready to endure anything for this to never happen to me again."

Monique saw the look in his eyes, she knew she wouldn't convince him. Even more importantly, a part of her was agreeing to what he had said. "So this is it? Between the two of you… It's really over?" she asked.

-"Yeah," said Ron after a silence that seemed to last ages "it is." He took out his phone and called Felix in order to get them out.

 **Kim's POV**

Kim was outraged by what Eric had done to Jarvis after their breakup. If her mom hadn't told her Jarvis had been admitted to the Middleton hospital she would still be looking for him. Fortunately, none of his injuries were too bad, so he would probably be discharged for the incoming homecoming.

He had managed to talk her out of beating the crap out of her former boyfriend for what he had done and even managed to make her smile a little. And she needed it.

"Damn, I'm so stupid," She thought "I come to cheer him up and he's the one who end up making me smile."

-"So" Jarvis started "are you going to tell me what happened between you and Stoppable or do I have to make you spit out everything?"

Here it came, she would have to say what happened once again. And it was as painful as the other times she thought about it.

-"Come on" he encouraged her "I know you need to talk about it considering it doesn't seem to have gone well."

And so she told him everything. Her race to Ron's house, what she told him, his answer, how he avoided her at school and her discussion with her mom.

-"So" Jarvis started "You told him you wanted to be his friend again and he said no. So I understand you didn't confess your feelings for him."

Kim's cheeks became bright red "What feelings…"

-"Come on Kim" he replied "You have a lot of talents but hiding things isn't one of them. And I'm starting to understand you a bit more so don't pretend I'm wrong."

Kim nodded, to ashamed to have been found out so easily to say anything.

-"So" he continued "What are you going to do? Follow you mom's advice and give him space and time to see if he'll come back to you?"

-"You say it like it's a bad idea." She answered

-"And I think so." He said "From what I know about the Christmas incident, I think the reason he resents you is the fact that you chose that "hottie" over him, so I think what you have to do more than anything is to show him that you changed."

-"What do you mean?" She asked.

-"You like like him right?" He said.

-"Of course I do!" she shouted, angry that he questioned her feelings.

-"Then show him, and show him how that made you change: no more hottie, no more dates with the guys at the top of the "food chain", show him how important he is to you and that you're not going to let him go, no matter what he says or do." He replied firmly.

Kim looked at him for a second, she couldn't understand how a transfer student from England was able to understand her and her relationship with Ron so well. At this moment she didn't care. She had her path, her destination. That was all she needed. She gave Jarvis a friendly hug to thank him for his help and left the hospital.

It didn't matter if Ron didn't want to see her, it didn't matter if she didn't know how she was going to solve this stitch. She wasn't going to let it end like this. And for the first time in weeks she finally came back to her old self. She looked at the sunset and let a group of familiar words flow out of her mouth for the first time since Christmas Eve while promising to herself to get Ron back.

-"I'm Kim Possible, I can do anything".


	25. Chapter 25 : Girl Talk

**Hello guys, I wanted to react to some reviews that seem to come around a lot. I don't think my story is perfect and I encourage you to tell me what you think should be written differently. That said I wanted to react to two kind of reviews that seem to come a lot.**

 **-First : "Kim should figure out more things by herself" I think Kim is that kind of character, she is good when it comes to action but is really bad when it comes to human relationship (just as Ron shows, as soon as a boy comes into the picture she starts losing it.). Add to that the fact that her failure with Ron could be considered as her first real failure on which she needs to work a lot, and the fact that, contrary to the other character who aren't as "exceptional" as her, she doesn't have the experience of failing and recovering from failure. That's why she needs people to show her the right way when it comes to relationships. (Of course the title of this fanfiction is "Developments" maybe she'll improve on that, maybe not.) Now that she's back to her old self, it will be more interesting to develop her thoughts on that subject, I can't deny it wasn't funny to write a depressed Kim in the last chapters.**

 **-Second : about "Jarvis becoming kind of a Marie-Sue". Let's review the character: he is alone in a country where he knows nobody, he isn't the kind of guy that is popular in high school, doesn't really enjoy being in Middleton and will go back to England at the end of the year. And add to that the fact that Kim is the only real friend he made in Middleton: of course he is going to help her as much as he can through her trials, (it's not as if he has a lot to do anyway considering Middleton isn't that big of a city and he practically knows no one.). As for the way he "always" manage to help her, don't forget that Kim's problems aren't that complicated, it's just the typical problems a high school girl can face, what makes it complicated is the heavy emotional situation. The reason Jarvis can be that helpful is because, due to the fact he isn't from Middleton, he can be less emotional and think about things in a more detached way. It is precisely due to the fact he can think outside the box, without all the emotion that affects all the other characters, that he can be that helpful. Of course that doesn't mean he's always right (remember he didn't question Kim's and Eric's relationship until after Christmas even though he had doubts, which led to Christmas Eve, so maybe there is a little guilt in his actions. Ha, maybe something I could have developed a bit, damn I always see little things like this after I posted the chapters, that's thanks to your reviews guys.)**

 **Sorry for the long introduction, I will gladly read and discuss about your opinions when you share them through reviews and PM, now here comes the chapter:**

 **Kim's POV**

For the first time, Kim felt powerless about her situation. Since she had decided to fight in order to regain Ron's friendship, and more if possible, she had thought about how to catch his attention in order to find a way to get back in his life. However, she found out it was pretty difficult to interact with Ron considering the fact he made everything in order to avoid any contact with her.

At first she felt angry and a bit thrilled by the challenge, but as the days went by and she couldn't find a way to get Ron's attention she began to feel more and more frustrated. It wasn't like she was invisible to him but more like as if she wasn't worthy of his attention. It was the first time someone was acting like that toward her and she couldn't believe how hard it was for her. And the fact that she was seeing Yori buzzing around Ron every day, laughing with him, chatting with him, having lunch with him, and doing all the things SHE used to do with him.

"Damn," she thought "I didn't know it was so hard being ignored." As she formed this thought, she understood Ron spent most of his high school life in the same situation she was in right now: completely invisible to the others. Sure, she still had cheerleading and dancing but the people she wasn't so desperately be close to were completely ignoring her.

Now she was admiring Ron even more to have endured this situation for years with only her by her side as she wasn't always the best possible friend and to have been capable of staying his goofy, cheerful and smiling self.

She was deep in these not so cheerful thoughts during lunch period when Monique went and sat in front of her.

-"Hi" she started awkwardly.

-"Monique?" Kim answered with utter disbelief, "If you're looking for Ron's table, we don't share one since my major screw up."

-"I'm not looking for Ron, I'm looking for you." She replied.

-"Why?" Kim answered, "It's not like I've been the best possible BFF those days."

-"Because," Monique replied "you finally dumped the male-Bonnie you had as your boyfriend, you came back to us with an apology, though not the apology of the century but still better than nothing, and finally you've never been able to pick a dress yourself and you need one for the incoming homecoming."

-"Monique…" Kim started "you don't have to do that you know."

-"Yes I do." She answered firmly, "first because I have also been too dazzled by Eric to realize what was happening at the beginning of your relationship, and also because I don't want to pick a side between you and Ron. You both are my friend, despite what has happened between the two of you."

Kim didn't know how she could answer to that and pulled her BFF into a tight hug before sitting and enjoy her lunch as well as a conversation with her best friend. "I really missed that." she thought.

As lunch period ended they both headed to different classes.

-"So" Monique started "We meet up after school and go to the mall?"

-"Sure," Kim answered "I could use a shopping trip right now."

-"I get that." Monique concluded "Then see you after school."

The rest of the day seem to fly by. Kim's moodiness seemed to be completely gone for the first time since Ron rejected her and when she met up Monique at the school gate, she had her first real smile in days.

They headed out to the mall, catching up on what they had missed ever since they stopped seeing each other, even though they avoided mentioning both Ron and Eric in order to avoid the sensitive parts.

As they were trying almost every dress in the club banana store like two little girls for their first prom, Monique told Kim about the latest gossip in their little group, while of course letting Ron aside, while Kim told her about her last days and what Eric had done to Jarvis after she dumped him but she let aside what she told him and her mother about her feelings for Ron.

-"Are you sure you're not going to give him a beating? He would deserve it for everything he did." Monique asked.

-"Nah, I just want to forget him and move on, besides if Jarvis himself isn't interested in beating the crap out of him I don't see why I should be." Kim replied.

As they were trying dresses more seriously, Monique couldn't help but see the dreamy look in Kim's eyes Monique couldn't help but wonder about what she was thinking.

-"So, who is going to be your date for homecoming?" She asked, "I'm sure you have someone in your mind considering the way you look at these dresses."

-"What? No I don't." Kim replied, 'I'm not really interested in a relationship right now."

Of course that was false, there was someone she would have loved to ask out but she already know what would be his answer. Monique could see her BFF wasn't telling her the whole truth and dug a bit more.

-"Is it that Jarvis guy?" She asked "He seems nice considering the way you talk about him."

-"No it's not him." Kim shouted "Besides I don't think about him that way and neither does him about me."

-"Ha!" Monique replied "So there IS someone! Just tell me, you know you'll end up spitting the truth anyway."

Kim felt stupid for being cornered so easily, she had always been bad at keeping secrets anyway. She took a deep breath.

-"You promise you won't tell anyone?" She asked.

-"Come on, girl" Monique replied "I won't tell a soul I promise you."

-"OK." She said, she got closer in order to whisper it in her ear: "It's Ron."

Monique felt like a truck just hit her on an express highway. This wasn't good at all, she remembered he conversation she had with Ron and when she understood about his feelings. This wasn't good at all.

-"Ron?" She whispered back "Last time I checked your type was more the popular hottie that the goofy nerdy childish guy."

-"True," Kim replied "but look where all these years chasing hotties brought me, I'm alone, I pushed you out of my life, almost definitely, and I lost the one person that has always been there for me."

-"But how can you be sure?" Monique said "I would understand that you want to become friends again but how can you be sure that you "like like" him?"

-"I don't know." Kim answered "The only things I know is that I lived the best moments of my life with him by my side, I also know that when I'm with him, I felt fulfilled, I felt happy, I felt at peace. Sometime my heart would race for no reason, he would make me laugh, he would surprise me, he would always be there for me." Kim stopped for a second, her voice broke a bit "And yet, despite everything he did for me, I let him down, for one of these hotties I kicked the best thing that ever happened to me out of my life."

Monique felt sorry for her friend, she wanted to stop her but Kim just kept going, as if a dam had been broken and the water couldn't be contained anymore.

-"I chose this hottie over him, the same way I always did, when I went with Josh at the spirit dance and left him in that closet, when I left the house for a date with Josh while he was trying to prevent me from vanishing. I always chose them over him despite everything he did for me, and I don't know if he'll ever be able to forgive me. But I also know that every time I see him with Yori, I feel like someone is poking my heart with a sting. I know that every time I think about the way we used to save the world together, or when we were together seeing a movie or hanging out at Bueno nacho, I feel happy."

She looked at Monique in the eyes before continuing "I know that every time I think about his face, my heart starts racing and that every time I think about my future, I can't help but seeing it with him because otherwise it would be too painful."

When she finally stopped, she had tears in his eyes Monique wanted to say something but Kim said one last sentence before she could talk.

-"So, I know it's selfish, I know he probably doesn't want to see me again but I really want to try to make up for everything I did in order for us to have a chance together."

Monique just looked at her BFF, without anything to say, she was sad Kim had needed to lose her best friend in order to finally get over her obsession of hotties but at least, she ended up changing, in a good way. She took her hand.

-"At least, this shows we can have our girl talks again." She said.

Kim couldn't help but laugh at that, she really missed these conversations with her friend.

-"Well, now that everything is clear" Monique concluded "all that's left is to get you the most amazing dress for homecoming in order for Ron to be completely amazed." "Come over here" she said as she was pulling her BFF inside the fitting room.


	26. Chapter 26 : Homecoming Night

**Hello guys, just saying, I think we're coming toward the end of the story, I hope you guys are still enjoying this story. Almost all the side characters have done most of their job so I'll focus the story mainly on Kim and Ron (probably Yori a bit too). As usual, reviews are appreciated especially on this chapter because i spent a lot of time wrting it and i'm still not completely satisfied about what i wrote, however i couldn't find a way to do better. Now here we go again.**

 **Kim's POV**

The homecoming ball, she had dreamt of this for years, ever since she started high school, however, in all her dreams she was coming to the ball with her dream boyfriend, they danced, had fun, kissed tenderly and maybe were elected King and Queen. In the reality, the guy she was in love with came with another girl and she didn't have a date.

In her dreams Ron was here, encouraging her, just like her best friend would in this situation, he would joke with her dream boyfriend because they would obviously be friends, then Ron would fine a nice girl who would like him for who he is and the four of them could hang out together, having fun, going on double dates, and ultimately they would all go to the same college and would live happily ever after.

As usual, life is always different from what you dreamt of when you were younger. In reality, her dream guy and Ron were the same person, but he came to the ball with someone who genuinely liked him and it wasn't her. As she was watching Ron and Yori together she couldn't help but wonder: "Are they dating?" she thought, no one had seen them Kiss or do any couple stuff, even Monique had assured her that they were close, but that even though there was some link between them, they weren't dating. Yet.

The real problem was the fact Ron had completely pushed her out of his life and she still didn't know how to get him to forgive her.

As the ball was going on, Kim kept looking discreetly at Ron and Yori as they were dancing. She didn't know a dance without a date could be so lonely, she didn't understand why Ron insisted on asking to go with her when he couldn't find a date but now she was starting to figure out why. Her feelings for Ron kept strengthening as she understood he willingly accepted to support this loneliness every time he encouraged her to ask guys out.

The warm feelings in her chest was followed by a cold stab to her heart as she remembered the way she treated him, even after everything he did for her. "I'll show him," she thought "I'll show him that I've changed, that I'm not the same person anymore." She was grateful to all the person who helped her to change, her mother, Jarvis and Monique mostly. It was because of them she understood the weight of her own actions and mistakes.

She was still lost in her thought when Mr Barkin asked for attention. "I'm going to announce the result of the election of the King and the Queen." He roared in his microphone.

First he took out a little card from an envelope and announced Eric had been elected King this year.

Kim couldn't help but sigh, she wasn't interested in being Queen anymore but she couldn't help but pity the girl that would have to spend the next few days with Eric as the Queen of such a bastard.

Mr Barkin took out another card from the other envelope, and announced: "The Queen this year is Miss Kim Possible."

Kim's jaw dropped as she heard MR Barkin's words. This wasn't possible right? She had been elected Queen? She would have to be the one spending the next days going to those events with ERIC by her side? This was a nightmare.

She walked mechanically toward the stage, Mr Barkin put a tiara on her head and declared her and Eric King and Queen of the year. Kim felt like puking. She saw Ron lowering his head, a disappointed look on his face before he started walking toward the exit with Yori by his side.

She was waiting for this to finish, defeated, when Eric took her hand. "So we meet again," he whispered her "I told you, you and I are destined to be together, at the top, above those ones" he said designing the rest of the students. She heard his arrogant words, she saw his smug face, she remembered what he did to her and suddenly she couldn't control herself anymore.

She punched him. Hard. In the face. In front of the entire student body, the professors and the school staff.

She felt as if everything was going in slow motion. She saw Eric falling on his butt, she saw the student shocked faces, even Ron was shocked. She grabbed Eric by the collar if his tuxedo and whispered him her answer. "You ca have it, your moment at the top, but I'm never going to endure being with you ever again." She paused before adding "You think I don't know what you did to Jarvis? Why he was hospitalized? Come near me, or the person that are important to me ever again and what I do to Shego every time I face her will be nothing compared to what you'll endure."

She had never seen someone looking so scared that Eric looked at that very moment. "Good," she thought "This is done." She grabbed her tiara and threw it to the ground, in front of the still shocked students and School staff, "I don't want this" she said, "Give it to someone else."

And then, she ran toward the door she saw Ron and Yori use. A moment later she was outside but couldn't find them. She was about to cry from anger when she heard a familiar voice.

-"You're looking for him?" she heard.

She turned to face a high school guy in a high tech wheelchair, Ron's best friend, Felix Renton.

 **Ron's POV**

;-"Are you okay?" Yori asked as they sat under a tree, behind a bush near the entrance of the building

Was he okay? That was a good question. He had decided to push Kim out of his life so why would it matter that she would go to this guy again? What did he feel when he saw her walking toward that stage? It wasn't sadness, it was disappointment.

-"When Kim appeared in front of my house and tried to apologize for what she said on Christmas Eve, I thought that maybe she would understand that I've changed. That I'm not the same kid that would forgive her for everything. I thought maybe she would change, maybe she would stop chasing hotties. But it seems like she did none of that. She even returned to that asshole." He took a deep breath. "I don't know I thought, now that she knew how he lied to her, she wouldn't talk to him again. I thought the fact he broke our friendship was more important to her than the fact he was a pretty boy. But in the end she's still the same, and I feel bad for her."

-"It's okay" Yori said, putting her hand on his shoulder, "It's not your fault that she's so fixated on appearances that she doesn't seem to care about who people are inside."

Then they heard to door open. Twice. Ron heard Felix's voice.

-"You're looking for him?" he said, "It's quite the show you put on here. Punching your king in the face in front of everyone, that isn't really fitting the honor roll student right?"

Ron froze, the door opened twice, could it be the other person was…

Kim's voice rose, next to Felix's "I don't care, it felt right, he deserved that and probably more." She paused. "You know where he is?"

-"No, I'm looking for him too. I saw him leaving the ball with Yori right after you were elected and I wanted to talk to him." He paused "But the real question is, why are YOU looking for him?"

Kim froze, why had she run to that door when she saw Ron getting out? "I don't know" she answered "I saw him leaving and I just… acted on an impulse."

-"Even though he doesn't want to talk to you anymore?" Felix asked.

-"He's right. I was a terrible friend. Not only with what happened with Eric, but I can't even list all the times I let him down. I don't care if he's never going to forgive me, I'll just keep trying."

-"Why?" Felix asked, genuinely interested, "Why does it matter so much to you?"

-"Because, out of all the people I met he's the only one that stuck with me through thick and thin, even though I kept disappointing him, because I'm not ready to give up on him, my most important person." She took a deep breath, "Because a girl will never stop chasing after the one she's in love with. And even if he came to the ball with another girl today, even if he pushed me out, as long as there is just a 1% chance I'll keep trying."

Ron felt his heart skip a beat, what did she say? Did he really hear "love"? "No!" he thought, "I mustn't, if I weaken now it's going to happen all over again."

Next to him, Yori was clenching her fist, a furious look on her face.

Kim kept going, not knowing they were listening. "I know, what I did, I know why I did it. I understand it now, how I was obsessing over hotties, just because they had golden looks and were popular, I didn't even take a look at what was beside me. I was no different than Bonnie, judging guys based on their looks and their popularity. I'm not interested in being that girl anymore. That's why, if there is just a slight chance Ron and I can have a future together, I'll bet everything on it."

Felix couldn't stop his smile, "I can't believe it took her so long." He thought, now all I have to do is to find Ron. "Don't you think you're saying this to the wrong person?" he asked, "You should tell him directly."

"You think I didn't try" she said, "He keeps avoiding me, I can't even talk to him in private, he's always with you guys, or Yori. It's like we were never close."

Felix sighed "True," he thought "That's going to be a problem." He looked behind Kim and saw two known figures leaving, one dragging the other behind her. He smiled as he recognized them. "I think he will listen this time." He said with a smile to an unbelieving Kim.

 **Yori's POV**

Yori's anger was completely visible, as son Kim had finished her chat with Felix she had grabbed Ron who was still completely frozen by what he heard, and had dragged him out of here. "I can't believe the nerves of that girl." She thought "She hurts him again, again and again and she still comes, saying she's in love with him. Does she have some respect? Who does she thinks was by Ron's side after she threw him out of her life like garbage? Who stood by his side? Who helped him train?" she never thought she could be as furious as she was bringing Ron back to his house. "If she thinks I'm going to accept that, she is dreaming." She mumbled to herself.

When she finally arrived to Ron's house, he seemed like he had recovered a bit. She followed him through the front door but he stopped her with his hand. "Yori," he said "Do you mind if I stay alone? I think I need some time to think about everything that was said tonight." He looked at her in the eye "you understand that, right?"

His voice felt genuinely tired and lost "Of course I understand," she said "Goodnight, Ron-san."

-"Goodnight, Yori" he replied as he closed the door and headed to his room.

Yori felt she was too angry for sleeping or meditating, so she headed out to town, there was a place she had to visit.

After a walk, she finally reached the Possible's House. There was no light in Kim's room so she waited outside, her ninja training allowing her to stay undetected.

A few moments later, Kim appeared, as she was about to get inside her house, Yori revealed herself. Her fury was completely visible on her face.

She closed the gap between her and Kim, who saw her coming, as fast as she could and started poking her chest.

-"You…" she started "Just what do you think you are doing? You think you can just come and get between people like that? You think you can do whatever you want?"

-"Just what are you saying?" Kim asked, not understanding what was happening.

-"You think I didn't hear your little discussion with Felix after the ball?" Yori asked

Kim was shocked, "Yori heard that," she thought "but since Yori heard that and that Ron was with Yori it means…" "Did Ron hear it too?" she asked, she didn't need an answer, the fury on Yori's face said it all, "How did he react?"

-"That's none of your business" Yori shouted, "just stay away from him. You had your chance, more than once, and you threw it away, now it's my turn."

-"You think I'm just going to accept that?" Kim said with an angry look on her face, "I'm not going to give up just because you're scared Ron won't choose you."

Yori shouted in rage and leaped at Kim. The fight between the two girls looked more like a catfight than a martial artist's fight, both of them had their movements restricted by the dress they wore for homecoming, also they were prepared for dancing, not fighting. Yori had to time to throw her hand at Kim's face as if it was a claw before Kim's knee hit her abdomen, pushing her away.

With this, Yori had calmed a bit. She prepared to leap art Kim once again, in a more organized way this time when Kim interrupted her.

"You think this is going to change something?" she asked "Fighting won't change anything."

Yori froze, "True," she said before delivering a punch to Kim's chest that was parried at the last second "but it still feels good."

Kim backed away and asked angrily "What exactly is wrong with you?"

-"You!" Yori said, "My problem is you, every time I'm with Ron, there is a part of him that's thinking about you. Even when we definitely took care of monkey fist together while protecting Hana I could feel there was a part of him that was focused on you. And yet you don't deserve him. You don't deserve to have someone like Ron to worry about you, to think about you, you who only think about high school "hotties" as you call them." She paused, "Why can't he just leave you behind?"

Kim felt strange as she heard those words, she never thought her decision to chase after Ron would affect other people like that, even though it was completely obvious.

"I understand what you mean." She started "But that doesn't mean I'm going to give up. Because, even though I acted stupidly, even though I let him down so many time, I'm not that person anymore and I'm not going to lose the only person that matter to me so much." She stopped, as she was thinking about what she was saying, about how selfish she was, and finally concluded "However, I'm also going to respect his decision, if he chooses you, I'm not going to try to get between the two of you."

Yori froze as she heard those words. "So, if I understand what you mean, we let him chose and respect his decision, whatever it is?"

-"That's exactly what I said." Kim finished, looking at the Japanese girl.

Yori looked at Kim for a while before heading home. "I still won't forgive you, for the way you treated him." She said as she was leaving.

Kim stared at her as she was leaving, then she headed to her room and lied on her bed as she started drifting to sleep. "Neither will I." she said as she fell in the arms of slumber.


	27. Chapter 27 : Coming to a Decision

**Yori's POV**

Ever since the Homecoming night and her discussion with Kim Possible, Yori had been lost in her thoughts. Up until now, her life had been simple, she never really had any questions to think about. At school she would do her best, focus on her training, try to please sensei and prepare for the arrival of the Monkey master.

All this routine had been shattered when Ron came in her life. He would always take things the way they came, never thinking ahead, always enjoying the moment. All this backed by an unwavering confidence that things would work out and his will to do the right thing. Yori had been smitten right away.

Unfortunately, as soon as she learnt the existence of Kim Possible she felt like her hopes had been crushed: a beautiful young American teen hero who knew Ron since pre-K, there was no way she could match the intensity of the bond those two shared.

And yet it happened, someone as gentle, as amazing as Ron ended up forsaken by his best friend, the same best friend who had her back watched by Ron all this time. At that very moment, Yori had felt both sad and happy. Sad because Ron's pain had been completely visible, no matter how hard he tried to hide it, but happy because that meant maybe she would have a chance with the one she fell in love with at first sight.

And yet, Kim Possible came back, even after what she had done to him she had the nerve to come back and ask for forgiveness, and she even confessed she had feelings for Ron. At first Yori had been angered by the selfishness of Kim's actions, that's why she went to confront her after Homecoming. However, after the conversation she had with Kim, she wasn't even in the mood to be angry at her anymore. She really wanted to see an evil, manipulative woman that only wanted to have Ron all to herself, but instead she could see the feelings the young redhead claimed she had for Ron were the real deal. Just like her own.

For the first time in her life, Yori felt like she had no chance to win. And worse, she even had no power to influence the decision that was everything to her. That would be Ron's decision, otherwise it would have no meaning. And he would obviously chose the one he knew the longest, the one he had feelings for even before he even met any young Japanese girl.

Of course Ron would chose Kim Possible. Just like he had always done. She looked at the calendar, graduation was just around the corner, and Ron wasn't the type of guy that would wait until after the end of high school to give them his decision. Soon she would know. Know the answer to the question that mattered more than anything to her.

 **Kim's POV**

Ever since the Homecoming night, Kim had been restless. As she was taking a look at her life, she couldn't help but wonder how her life had taken such a turn for the worst. Ron had always been one of the most stable things in her life, just like her parents, she even met him before her brothers were born. And she had always thought he would always be here, by her side, through thick and thin, no matter what would happen, no matter what life would throw at them, they were tight enough to endure it.

And they were, it wasn't life that had destroyed this exceptional bond, probably to best she ever shared with anyone, it was herself. For a hottie, the pretty face of a liar, she had thrown that bond away. At first she thought it was only because of the Eric's lies, but now she knew the problem was deeper than that.

When was it? When had she started taking her best friend for granted? When had she started to think she could do anything to him and that he would always stay here? Why had she started to think that? Did she really think she was so out of his league that he couldn't find someone better? Whether it was conscious or not, she had started thinking like that, and it had costed her her best friend. No, Ron was much more than that. Her best friend, her confident, her partner. The love of her life. Never in her life, had she been so sure about her feelings about something. She NEEDED him. Needed his goofy smile, needed his joy, needed his optimism.

And yet she let him down. How could he chose her then? Of course, he would chose the one who always stayed by his side, the one who never let him down, no matter how hard it was for him, the one who kept believing in him no matter the difficulties.

He would chose Yori, and there was nothing she could do about it but wait for his decision.

She took a peek at the calendar, graduation was coming. Her mom had bought her a dress and she had been chosen to deliver the speech. How could she do that? Give a speech to encourage everyone when she had failed to most important person in her life in such a big way.

At least, Ron would let them know his decision before the end of High school. All that's left is to wait, and that was the most painful thing she ever had to do.

 **Ron's POV**

Ever since Homecoming, Ron had actively avoided both Kim and Yori. This came with some problems considering Yori's friends were his friends and that Kim's close friend was Monique, which meant he spent most of his time alone.

He didn't have any problem with it, he had already a lot of problem trying to calm the storm that was raging in his head. Time had passed since Homecoming and graduation was coming around and he still hadn't given an answer to Kim and Yori. He didn't know what kind of conversation they had but the way they looked at him let him know everything. They had reached a kind of understanding and were waiting for his decision.

"I can't believe of much I've improved at understanding girls," he thought "last year I wouldn't have understood anything to what was happening."

The school was still talking about what had happened during the Homecoming ceremony, mostly the moment when Kim had punched her "King" in the face and had left the ball throwing away her tiara, and thus her status as "Queen". After that, Bonnie had been elected as the new "Queen" and she seemed to enjoy her duties with Eric.

However, the events of that night were precisely what was spinning in Ron's head right now.

That's why he needed time to clear his head in order to decide what to do next.

His feelings for Kim had never really vanished, especially since now she had grown past her "hottie" phase and seemed more attentive to others. However, he wasn't insensible to Yori's feelings who had stayed by his side all this time.

Kim: Hot-blooded, strong-willed, with an almost unstoppable drive that pushed her to help others, but also beautiful, generous and not as self-centered as she used to be. He could see the regret in her eyes and had also grown past the point where he couldn't forgive her.

Yori: Calm, attentive, always ready to support him in his decisions and choices, but also very pretty with her harmonious face and gracious body, and she had managed to grow on his friends who were all very fond of her.

Kim and Yori, Yori and Kim. Kim or Yori? Yori or Kim?

All these thoughts were spinning in his head, he was grateful there weren't any more tests before graduation because there was no way he could have focused on his studies in this situation.

He was in his room, lying on his bed when he heard a knock on the door, intrigued he opened the door only to end up face to face with Felix.

-"Hi," Felix started "it's supposed to be our video game night today, did you forget?" he had a copy of the newest Zombie Mayhem game in his hand.

-"No, of course," Ron answered "Come here" he said as he was turning on his console.

After a few games where Felix completely destroyed him, Felix hit the pause button. "Ok," he started "you are even worse than usual, what's happening?" he looked at his friend who seemed completely down before asking "Is it about homecoming?"

Ron looked at his friend for a second before letting go of everything, how he had lived the homecoming ceremony, how Yori had reacted to Kim's declaration and finally, the predicament he was in.

-"Predicament?" Felix asked, "Until now, there wasn't really a choice to make considering you were shutting out Kim because of what happened on Christmas Eve." He paused, "Unless… you had a change of heart?"

Ron sighed "Fine," he started "you got me. Kim is finally the girl I dreamed her to be which mean I'm completely stuck, I have to choose but the more I think about it the less I come to a decision, one day it's about Kim, the day after it's about Yori and it's driving me crazy."

Felix chuckled and Ron looked at him angrily "What?" he asked.

-"It's just" Felix answered "I remember when you were complaining about the fact you couldn't find a date for any dance and now you complain because you can't choose between two of the most beautiful girls at school."

Ron couldn't help but laugh at that "Yeah, wait, does that makes me a popular guy? I've never been a popular guy!" He stopped when he saw Felix's glare "Alright, back to subject, how do you think I should handle this?"

-"Hey, don't mix me in your business dude, it's your decision. Besides, you didn't even tell me how you feel about them." Felix replied

Ron stopped at that and looked at his friend who kept going, "Ok, let's start with Yori, let it all out."

Ron's gaze seemed to lose himself behind Felix when he started talking, "With Yori, honestly it's great, she's always ready to support me, with her with me I feel strong, I feel ready to do anything."

-"And with Kim?" Felix asked

Ron sighed before answering "With Kim… I feel vulnerable, I feel like I have to stay by her side, as if I'm drawn to her. No one ever hurt me as much as she did but… No ever made me feel so good too, not even Yori." He paused. "Damn this is way too hard, how am I even supposed to choose?" He looked at his friend "You, tell me: who would you choose?"

Felix had an angry look on his face as he heard those words, "So what?" he started "You're going to run away from that decision? Going to let someone else decide for you? What would be the point then? If you're unable to choose you'd better say no to both of them!"

Ron was taken aback, it was the first time he saw his friend that angry, however he understood his point, he didn't have the right to put this burden on his friend's shoulder. "Thanks man." He said with a smile.

-"I'm going to leave you to your thinking, you'd better give them an answer before graduation, Kim is supposed to deliver her speech in two days you know."

-"Roger that." Ron concluded as his friend was leaving.

He resumed his thinking but his ideas seemed somehow clearer, he kept thinking for some time before getting up from his bed and grabbing his jacket. He left his house and started walking. The more he thought about it, the more his decision seemed the good one, the one he should have made since the beginning. Two days left before graduation, he prayed he didn't make them wait too much.

He finally arrived to his destination, he took a deep breath before ringing the doorbell. He waited for what seemed to be an eternity before the door opened.

-"Ron?" asked a bewildered Kim Possible as she opened the door.


	28. Chapter 28 : Choices

**Hi guys, sorry for the late update, I had a really crazy week. Anyway, we're getting closer to the end, I already have everything in my head, I only have to write it. Enjoy.**

 **Kim's POV**

"What was he doing here?" she thought, she couldn't wrap her brain around the fact that he had appeared in front of her front door. "Maybe…? Could it be…?" She started thinking, she started hoping…

-"Kim," Ron started "I came because I made my choice and I thought it wouldn't be fair not to tell you I'm going to ask Yori out tomorrow."

Kim felt like her heart fell apart, she had started to hope for the best and the sentence finally came out in order to shatter those hopes. She fought in order to hold her tears. "I thought so," she said, "I had my chance with you last year and I blew it, I am sure you and Yori will be great together."

-"I… thanks for taking it so well." Ron replied, looking relieved.

-"It's your choice, I can't resent you for it." Kim answered "and at least we can still be friends."

Ron stood frozen in front of her, not answering. She felt her heart beat faster. It was as if time was getting slower when she heard Ron's reply. "No we can't." He said.

Kim was dumbfounded, she could understand why he would choose Yori but that… "Why?" She couldn't stop the question from leaving her mouth. She had to know why. "I know I screwed up but I changed, just like you changed over the year, it took me some time but you know I'm not the same self-centered, hottie-obsessed, childish girl. Even if you're dating Yori we could still be friends." She waited and saw him nodding. "Then why? Just tell me why?" She had never been so close to tears but she wouldn't cry, not now, not in front of him.

-"Because of the same reason it took me so much time to choose." Ron said, "Because I have to make a clean cut in order to focus on the girl I chose, and I won't be able to do that if I keep hanging out with you."

-"So what?" she said, "we live in the same city, and not a very big one it's not as if you're not going to see me anymore."

-"That's not true," he replied and paused when he saw Kim interrogative look. He took a deep breath, "I will ask Yori if I can go to Japan with her after graduation."

If Ron's statement about choosing Yori had been dynamite for Kim, this was a freaking atomic bomb. "JAPAN?" She shouted, "Why? You're going to let everyone behind? Felix, Monique, Josh, Tara and everyone you know? DO you…"

-"Kim," Ron interrupted her, "This is my choice, I have my reasons and you don't have a say in this. Nothing you'll say will make me change my mind."

Kim stopped talking. Graduation was in two days, after that Ron would go to Japan. He would probably spend the next day and Graduation day with Yori which meant this was the last moment which belonged to them only.

She marched forward and pulled him into a tight hug. "I know she'll be an amazing girlfriend and you'll do great things in Japan but please, don't forget about this place, this town and everything you lived here."

-"I sure won't." Ron replied as he broke the hug. They stared at each other for a while unable to find the right words, what could be said to definitely end a lifelong friendship?

-"Goodbye, Ron Stoppable" Kim finally said.

-"Goodbye, Kim Possible" Ron answered.

Kim came back inside and closed her door. It was done. Over. She went upstairs, to her room. She laid on her bed, looking at the pictures of her and Ron around the world for their missions. Then she started crying.

 **Ron's POV**

As the Possible's door closed, Ron started heading back to his house. It was the right decision. He couldn't stay friend with Kim and date Yori, especially since he had feelings for both. So letting go of Kim since he chose Yori was the right decision. It was the right decision. Then why couldn't he stop crying?

The next day, Ron headed up to Yori's place. The look of joy he saw on her face blew away most of his uneasiness from yesterday. The enjoyed their first times as a couple. Their first movie date. Their first kiss. Their first lunch date. And they talked. A lot. About how to deal with what was coming next. After a lot of talking they had managed to sort things out. This was going to work out just fine.

After this amazing lunch, prepared by Ron of course, Yori received a call from sensei. She had something to do on Yamanouchi's behalf nearby and would be back for dinner. Ron promised her he would be waiting for her with something even better than what they already did.

When Yori left, Ron decided to pay Felix a visit in order to thank him for setting his thoughts straight last time. He grabbed his jacket and walked toward his friend's house.

 **Felix's POV**

Felix saw his friend coming toward his house with a huge smile on his face and couldn't help but wonder what Ron finally did after their conversation.

He opened the door and let his friend in, starting with some small talk, as they always did until they were alone in the room. It was their ritual when they were at the other's house and he didn't intend to break it even for something as important as this.

As soon as the two of them got inside Felix's room and closed the door, Ron sat on his friend's bed and waited for the inevitable questions that would follow.

-"So" Felix started, "From the stupid grin you had on your face when you came I can tell you made your choice and that it went well."

-"Pretty much, yeah" Ron answered, knowing perfectly what Felix wanted to know but he enjoyed watching his friend waiting in order to know his decision. He didn't know why all his friends were so interested in his love life but he couldn't deny that for once it was nice to be the center of attention.

-"So," Felix continued "Are you going to tell me or do I have to roll over you order to get this out of you?"

-"Ok, ok" Ron replied with a smile, "No need to be that extreme, besides, you're all going to know when you'll see Yori and me coming, holding each other's arm, tomorrow for graduation."

Felix had to fight in order to prevent his smile from fading, sure he knew Ron was hesitating but deep down he always kept the hope that, in the end, Ron and Kim would end up together. In fact, most of their friends thought the same way.

-"Yori then," he started "I guess you've started to look for a college around. Try to choose a different one from Kim if she decides to stay around, it would be strange to have the two girls you had feelings for in the same college, with you, after high school."

Ron took a deep breath thinking about how he should say this to his best friend. Especially considering how he helped him out through this stitch. Then he decided to go simply and just tell him.

-"Actually, there is no way Kim is going to the same place Yori and I are going." He started.

-"How can you be so sure?" Felix asked.

-Because…" Ron took a deep breath "Yori and I are moving to Japan next year."

Felix felt like he lost his ability to breathe. Ron leaving? Impossible! This guy loved Middleton, we talk about the guy who still dress up for Halloween, the guy who sit at the same booth in the same fast food since Middle school. We talk about my best friend. The one I can talk about everything with, the one who'll always be there for me if I'm in trouble, the same way I'll be there for him. He couldn't leave.

Even though he felt such a shock, his brain kept analyzing this stitch inside out. "Is this Yori's idea?" He finally asked.

Even now, Ron couldn't help but be amazed by his friend's brain which had led him, once again, to the right answer.

-"Yeah," he answered "she's going back to Japan after graduation and I'm going with her. Besides, there are some things I have to finish there." "Such as a ninja training." He thought but he couldn't say that to his friend.

Felix watched his friend carefully, he knew him well enough to know he wouldn't budge. He had made his decision and he would stick with it.

-"I guess you have to prepare for your trip then, I'm not going to hold you more." He concluded with a smile as he left Ron at the front door.

-"You're taking this really well." Ron observed.

-"Hey, it's not as if we won't stay in touch," Felix replied "Technology is everywhere and no one knows how to use it better than me."

-"Really?" Ron answered teasingly "Not even Wade?"

-"Just shut up and go prepare!" Felix replied angrily as he chased his friend away.

He knew it was wrong to contest the choice of his friend but In the back of his head he couldn't help but hear this little voice which was saying: "None of this would have happened if he would have chosen Kim."

He went back to his room and watched the back of his friend, slowly disappearing and finally let his tears go.

 **Ann's POV**

Ann had seen her daughter in a lot of situation before. She had seen her angry, scared, happy, excited, tired, sick, and in every other state a young high school girl can go through. But despite everything her daughter had to endure she had never lost her will to go forward. She had never lost that optimism that "everything was possible for a Possible." That in the end, it would work out just fine.

Except for now. During the whole day Kim had acted as normally as she could, she ate breakfast with her family, chatted, laughed, and did everything a young high school girl do the day before her graduation. But the light that had always shined in her eyes had vanished. Vanished after Kim had opened that door yesterday night.

Ann didn't hear what happened but she didn't need that to know what had happened. Ever since she understood what Eric had done, Kim's feelings toward Ron had been obvious, they grew even more considering someone had forcefully done everything he could to push them apart for each other. Ann could only imagine the effect a rejection would have on her daughter in her state. In the end, that Eric kid had succeeded in something: he broke the most formidable bond Ann ever saw between two children.

No, she couldn't say that. Eric didn't have this power. Only Kim and Ron had it. Eric may have armed the gun but it was Kim that pulled the trigger on Christmas Eve. And Kim was probably all too conscious of that fact, which was why she was in this state.

During the afternoon, when Ann was at home, on a break from the hospital, while James was still in the space center and the tweebs were out, she decided to talk to her daughter. As she was coming toward the door, she couldn't help but think about how she was going to handle this. Kim had always been strong, every time she needed help from her it was to show her the right path in order to solve a problem, but now there was nothing Kim could do.

She knocked on her daughter's door. "Kim? Can I come in?"

-"Sure mom." Kim answered

Ann came in and watched her daughter seriously, more seriously than she ever did. Kim instantly knew what this was about.

-"Kim…" Ann immediately started, "Do you want to tell me what happened with Ron yesterday?"

Kim sighed "Was it that obvious?" She asked.

-"Only for me." Ann replied. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Kim started talking, she told her mom everything, how Ron came, the fact he chose Yori and that he was going to leave Middleton. She started crying in the middle of it. "I really tried mom. I did everything I could to show him that I changed, that I wasn't the same girl that I was last year but in the end I couldn't reach him." She had a sad laugh "And now I have to do this stupid speech, it just seems so stupid compared to all this."

-"No it's not" Ann answered confidently "It's true, you lost Ron, and you will lose other things in life, just like that. Do you really think you'll stay in touch with all of your high school friends? You will drift apart, like everyone, because that's what life is all about: you do your best to keep the people important to you from drifting away. And sometimes, you fail, just like what happened with Ron, and it really hurts. So take this pain, these feelings and do a proper goodbye speech to your high school life tomorrow."

Kim had stopped crying and was now watching her mother. A bit of her old spark back in her eyes. "Thanks mom." She said before getting back to her desk in order to work on her speech.

Ann left her daughter room, she had meant everything she said about high school but deep down, she had also hoped that Kim and Ron would be different, that they would be that one in a million couple that stayed "together forever" as in the fairy tales. "I guess it wasn't fated." She thought as she was going to bed. Tomorrow was graduation, Kim's last day as her little girl, even if things weren't perfect she would anything for it to be perfect. "What could possibly go wrong?" she thought as she drifted to sleep.


	29. Chapter 29 : Graduation

**Kim's POV**

Kim woke up with a strange feeling, it was her graduation day, she was supposed to be happy, to be moving forward, to be looking forward to her college years, however she couldn't help but look back to the mistakes she had made this year. She couldn't believe she kept thinking about Ron as childish when she had been the most childish of the two, chasing after guys who had nothing but looks. Wasn't she supposed to be some kind of role model? Wasn't that why she had been chosen to deliver their graduation speech.

After her talk with her mom she had been able to focus enough to write a speech she thought was decent. She still wasn't satisfied, but she couldn't see how she could do better. She grabbed some clothes from her dresser and went downstairs in order to join her family for dinner.

She couldn't help but think about how her relationship with Eric had impacted the one she had with her family, the way she became harsh with the tweebs, the way she stopped seeking help and advice from her mom, the way she agreed with her dad. "Damn, that should had least have been a wakeup call." she thought. Now everything was working out just fine, the tweebs seemed to have matured a bit considering they stopped using her things as test subjects for their new inventions, her mom was being as supportive as she could, she couldn't think about how she would face her problems without her by her side, only her dad was still oblivious to why she broke up with Eric and her troubles with Ron, at least he was still the same.

She sat with them, enjoying her last breakfast as their high school little girl. After that, she would look at the colleges that accepted her application and would have to make her choice. Still, going to a school without Ron would be strange, she would have no safe ground with her this time. "Stop thinking about him." She thought, "It won't bring him back, you pushed him away now deal with it."

-"So," Ann started "Do you have everything ready for graduation?"

-"Yes" Kim replied.

-"Your clothes?" Ann asked.

-"In my room." Kim replied.

-"Your speech?" Ann continued?

-"Finished it yesterday night." Kim answered.

-"Then go and prepare yourself." Ann finished, "and after that, go talk with Monique, go to the mall, but please, just don't stay in your room, moping, until graduation."

-"Are you sure?" Kim asked, but the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea, she grabbed her jacket and left the house.

She spent most of her time talking with Monique. Ron was off topic, Monique knew of Ron's choice and thought her friend could use some time without that on her mind. They spent most of the time talking about Kim's choice for college. She had offers from all around the world, New York, Paris, London, Rome and she couldn't help but wonder what she wanted to do.

-"Whatever you choose, you'll do just fine." Monique joked, "you can do anything after all."

-"Yeah, yeah," Kim answered "Could you just stop saying this? Apparently, I can do anything except keeping in touch with the person that matters the most to me."

-"Sorry, I know, off-limit." Monique finished, "but still, you know what you'll do right? If you want to keep up the crime fighting you have to choose your college accordingly, that way you can enter GJ or any other organization to continue what you're doing."

-"Yeah, I know." Kim said. She looked at her BFF, "and you, do you know what you're going to do?"

-"Duh, of course" Monique answered, "I already have some offers from schools where I'll be able to continue to work in the fashion industry. Who knows, maybe I'll end up designing Kim Possible next mission clothes." She said with a smirk.

-"Consider you hired." Kim replied before joining her friend's laugh.

Soon Kim had to leave in order to get ready for their graduation ceremony. As she finished dressing she couldn't help but be scared. She never lived anything like that. After this, she wouldn't be a high school student anymore. Before she had brushed those worries aside, thinking it was no big deal. But it was. In college she would probably live alone. The people she met in Middleton would all go their separate ways, she wouldn't be able to see her family except for holidays. She wouldn't be able to see Ron.

The words Ron said in front of her door hit her again. "Leaving after graduation" he said. Which mean, this was the last time she would see him for a very long time. If she saw him again. The realization hit her like 2 ton truck, this was possibly the last time she was seeing Ron. After High school was over, they wouldn't have any reason to see each other, he would be in Japan and he made very clear he didn't want her in his life anymore. Ron, the one that had always been here for her, wouldn't be in her life anymore. Today was the last day she could see him, hear his laugh, and contemplate his freckled face. Today was the last time she could see the person she loved.

-"Kim, we're leaving." Ann said.

-"I'm coming mom." Kim rushed out of her room as fast as she could, fighting the tears that were coming to her eyes and got in the car.

The ride seemed to be over in a flash, Kim spent it watching outside the window, not listening to the tweebs ranting. Tomorrow her life would be very different and not for the best.

They arrived to the graduation ceremony, Kim waited for her time to deliver her speech, she wasn't even interested anymore, she just wanted to get this over with, go to her room and mourn her former life, the life she had when she just had to call in order for Ron to rush and listen to her trouble, the life she had when they spent almost all their time together, the life she had when he was by her side. She saw him and Yori, they seemed so perfect together, so happy, she couldn't take it and rushed to the other side of the crowd. She took a seat and tried to calm down. She took deep breaths and let her respiration calm down, her heartbeat slow down. She was still sad but she was good to go when she heard Mr Barkin calling for her speech.

She started walking toward the stage, looking for her speech in her bag, "Where is this god damn speech?" she thought before remembering: she left her room in a hurry when her mother called, her speech still on her desk. "Oh shit!" She cursed as she was walking next to Mr Barkin. "What the hell am I going to say?" She thought, "think, think, think…"

-"…And now, let me introduce you the pride of Middleton high school, Kim Possible." Mr Barkin concluded before leaving her the stage for her speech.

Kim took a deep breath and walked forward. "I can remember it." She thought, "let's do this, I can do anything right?"

"Thank you Mister Barkin," she started, "First, I would like to say my thanks to the staff of the Middleton high school. It's because of them that we could enjoy those exceptional years at Middleton High."

"Today, is the last day of our high school life, today we are going toward our future. After all these years I spent with you, I can see all these familiar faces, some that I know very well, some that I don't know as much, some that belong to people I can't imagine my life without, some that belong to people I clashed with. And I'm sure it's the same with every single one of you. Because that's what happens in the big family we are all part of, we may have our differences but we're all part of something bigger than us…" "What's after that? I can't remember, I can't…"

She watched the faces of her classmates, Monique was worried when she stopped talking, Bonnie was smirking at the thought she could embarrass herself in public, and Ron's face was impossible to read. "Screw these lines," she thought.

"Yes, we're all part of Middleton high school, and that's something that bound us together for the past years. And for some of us, even more than that. Today we're scattering, these bound will grow weaker, weaker and someday, they'll disappear. Because that's what life's about. That's what my family told me when I was struggling with making this speech."

The other student laughed at those words

"But you know what? I'm not okay with this. I like to think that the bond we made with the ones that are truly important to us during all these years we spent together will survive. That even years after, we will still feel something from this bond, that even with everything life will do to pull us apart, we will still remember that we're all students from Middleton, and that those years together are more than enough to bring us back together, no matter how much we're apart."

All the students were silent, suspended at her lips as she concluded.

"I hope we'll never forget that what brings us together is stronger than what pushes us apart. People keep saying I can do anything, they're wrong."

She looked for Ron in the crowd and locked her eyes with his as she finished. "Together, we can do anything."

She stepped back, waiting and a rain of applause saluted the end of her speech, her mom was smiling, as she was looking at her but it was Ron she was looking for. She looked at him, next to Yori, she still couldn't read his face until she saw a few tears rolling from his eyes.

For the first time in days, Kim was smiling, things were going to be okay.

This moment lasted only for a few seconds, until she felt dragged in the sky y some sort of green ray. She was helpless as she saw herself being dragged to some spaceship. The rest of the students were horrified, some started to run away.

As she was losing sight of the crowd, feeling helpless for the first time in her life she heard a single shout that pulled her through this. That gave her hope.

Ron's voice shouted "KP!"

Even though she was being kidnapped by aliens, Kim felt happy, she had reached him.


	30. Chapter 30 : Conclusion

**Ron's POV**

 **-** "KP!" Ron shouted as he saw his best friend since pre-K being abducted by that spaceship. "That can't be happening, right?" He thought, "I must be dreaming and I'll wake up in my bed with my mom all excited for graduation." He cursed himself for thinking like that, it was happening in front of him so of course it was real, so now the only course of action was to deal with it.

But how could he deal with a freaking alien spaceship? He couldn't even reach that spaceship if he wanted, he would need a god damn rocket to catch up to it. Something clicked in his head. Rocket. "That's it," he thought "that's the solution!" He started walking toward Mr Dr P, the only one who could give him a chance to catch up to this spaceship.

-"Ron!" Yori said, grabbing his arm, "Don't tell me you plan to go help her?" she asked.

-"Of course I will!" he answered, "You don't think I'll let those aliens abduct her like that? I have to do something."

-"Ron," Yori continued, "I'm not telling you to do nothing, I'm just telling you to let the others, including Global Justice, do their job. It's their job to deal with this kind of situation and bring Possible-san back, not yours."

Ron wondered for a second how Yori could know about Global Justice before dropping the subject, she was part of a ninja school which had managed to stay secret for god knows how long, of course they would be more than well informed about everything.

-"So you're telling me to just sit on the sidelines and just wait? To let them do what has to be done?" He asked.

-"That's right. They will bring her back, don't worry." Yori said calmly, "She is Kim Possible, she has the entire world to have her back. They won't let her down like that."

"Have her back…" he thought, "how many time did I tell her I had her back? I stopped counting. Truth is, I can count the number of times I was really useful on one hand, and the rest of the time, any sidekick would have probably done the same job, that's why she managed to carry on the hero business even though I wasn't here anymore."

He paused for a second, and thought about the situation, either stay here, safe, on the ground with his girlfriend and let the professionals do their job of rescuing KP or go after her, into a probably hostile spaceship, all alone with probably no one to have his back. A freaking suicide mission. The choice was easy, no one would ever blame him, especially after what Kim had done. But he knew, despite everything that had happened between them that Kim wouldn't hesitate for even a second if she had to make this choice.

Besides, it was already painful to let go of her like that, he couldn't handle letting her die. He wouldn't be able to endure it.

-"Yori," he started, locking his eyes in hers, "I'm going." He simply said before going toward Mr Dr P.

Yori couldn't help but sigh, of course he would go. "It's always going to be like that isn't it?" She asked.

Ron turned around to face her, a look of incomprehension on his face. "What?" he asked "What do you mean?"

Yori had a sad smile on her face, "No matter what she does, in the end, when she's in trouble you're always going to rush to her side, I was stupid to think it would change."

-"Yori…" Ron started

-"Ron, you can lie to yourself all you want but you can't do that to me." She cut him, "It's her, in the end, when you have to choose, it's always going to be her, no matter what happens."

Ron went next to her and grabbed her, "But I chose YOU, remember, how can you say that…"

-"No, you didn't." she replied "You didn't chose me, you chose the safe pick."

Ron was dumbfounded by what she was saying, she didn't leave him the time to reply and kept talking.

-"You were scared, scared that she would hurt you again, like she did on Christmas Eve, but during the time we spent together, when we kissed, when we were dating, your eyes never had the same sparkle they had when you were with her." She said, "And no matter what I do, it wouldn't change. Even if we went to Japan you would still rush to her side if she needed your help. Am I wrong? You're even planning to go to outer space to save her."

-"I…" Ron couldn't answer to that, he knew he couldn't lie to her, he had always been a terrible liar.

-"It's okay," She said, hugging him, "How do they say? "Love always comes like a hurricane." Right?" She looked at him and took the most difficult decision of her short life, "Ron, I'm breaking up with you." She said.

Ron was still staring at her, completely shocked, what was happening? Why now? What…

She grabbed his hands and pulled his face in for a kiss, the last of their short relationship, before pointing the direction of the spaceship and saying "Now go and get your love."

Ron was still staring at her smiling face and couldn't help but wonder how she could do that when something clicked inside him. Like some old rusty mechanism finally started working again. He looked at Yori, at the sacrifice she just made, for him, to allow him to leave her in peace and go help the girl he loved.

Did he love her? He didn't know. What he knew was that the very idea of being away from her was unbelievably painful, that when he was with her, the world seemed to have more colors, that when she told him she loved him he felt like his heart was doing cartwheels in his chest. If being ready to give anything just to be by her side despite everything that had happened was love, then yes, he was in love with Kim. But that didn't mean he wasn't feeling anything for Yori.

He looked at Yori again, at what she had done for him, their friendship, the time they spent training, their mission to save Yamanouchi from Monkey Fist, when he looked back, her feelings were obvious. And he respected her even more after the decision she just made.

He hugged his now ex-girlfriend one last time before leaving, "I'm coming back," he said "It's a promise."

 **Yori's POV**

As she was watching Ron leave, Yori was still wondering why she had done this. Had she been influenced by the way Kim had managed to change herself? Did her education about honor and doing the right thing pushed her to do this? Or did her feelings for him were so strong that she couldn't keep him away from the one he truly loved? Or maybe these three reasons together.

She started to walk away from the crowd, until she found a place where she could be alone. "It was the right thing to do." She thought "Ron would have never admitted his true feelings if not for this, it was the right thing to do."

"It was the right thing to do." she said out loud "Then why does it hurts so much?"

-"Because they were real." A feminine voice replied. "Your feelings for him."

Yori lifted his head only to be faced with what seemed to be an adult version of Kim Possible with blue eyes.

-"You are Possible-san's mother, right?" She asked, "Why are you here?"

-"To thank you," she replied, "it must have taken you a lot of courage to do what you did, given up willingly the one you love to hope he'll find happiness with someone else is probably one of the most difficult decision one can ever decide to make."

-"Who told you…" Yori started

-"Yori is it?" Ann interrupted her, "I know Ron since he's a little boy, I knew you broke up with him the moment he arrived in front of us, the reason why was obvious when I saw you here."

Ann paused for a second, looking at the young girl next to her, she may be happy Kim and Ron finally had a chance to be together, she couldn't be insensitive to the pain of this girl that truly loved Ron, even though the feeling wasn't mutual.

-"I'm not going to tell you not to cry, because it wouldn't mean anything, I'm not going to tell you to forget him, because I know it's impossible, the only thing I can tell you is this." She paused and locked her eyes in Yori's. "You're an amazing young girl, with her future full of promising things, what you did here was not only a sign of kindness and love but it also meant you could put the happiness of other people before your own. I'm not even sure my own daughter would have taken this decision. So you mustn't give up, you mustn't let yourself be swallowed by those feelings and you have to keep going forward, because I'm sure, one day, you'll find the kind of person that will be able to do the same thing for you that you did today. And that day, cling on to him with all your strength and never let go of him. I'm sure someone is waiting for you to find him, the same way Kim and Ron found each other, no matter what happens you mustn't lose your faith that you'll find him."

Ann finished talking and pull Yori in for a hug filled with kindness and comfort. And here, in the arm of this woman, Yori finally let go the tears that filled her eyes and started crying.

 **Ron's POV**

Ron was running through the space center toward the ship Mr Dr P had told him about. His face was calm and composed, showing his determination, however his inner self was in complete turmoil after what had happened with Yori. The same choice seemed to come back to haunt him no matter what he did. Yori or Kim? Kim or Yori? These two names were spinning in his thoughts, confusing him even more about what he felt and what he thought he was feeling.

When he finally arrived in front of the ship he slapped his own face and told out loud, "Okay, not now, you will sort this out after everything is settled."

-"Sort what out?" said a familiar voice behind him.

Ron spun around only to face a green skinned villainess he knew too much, "Not now Shego, if you're looking for a fight you can have one with Kim once this alien problem is settled." He said angrily before realizing what he just did.

-"Wow," Shego replied, "Sidekick finally growing a pair I see." She paused, 'anyway, I'm not here for that, those aliens also took Dr D and I have to get him back, so do you mind if I tag along in here?" she said designing the rocket.

-"They kidnapped Drakken?" Ron said, not believing what he heard? "I don't get it, Kim I get why, she's the world's number one hero, but Drakken?"

-"Kim? You mean they took princess too?" Shego said. "Guess we're both heading to the same place then." They both took a seat inside the rocket, hoping everything would go well.

As the rocket was launched, Shego resumed talking "Never saw you that angry sidekick, well I guess this is the first time your girlfriend is kidnapped by some dudes from outer space so I guess this explains that."

-"She's not my girlfriend." Ron spat angrily, he was sick of everyone expecting he and Kim to be together.

-"Yeah, right." Shego snarled at the angry sidekick.

-"What?" Ron replied. "Go ahead, say what you think!"

-"She not your girlfriend but your still heading to an unknown alien spaceship to save her," Shego replied "You aren't in love with her but you still fought supervillains alongside her in life and death battles for years without a second thought. Stop trying to bullshit me and yourself sidekick, you love her, just admit it."

-"I don't recall asking for a therapist." He spat angrily.

-"Look," Shego continued "I know it's not my business, so I'll stop talking after that but if you let go of the girl you love just because you didn't want to admit your own feelings you're going to regret it, sooner or later."

-"Why don't you think about your own damn business," He replied "you look like a high school girl who gossips to avoid her own issues."

As Shego wasn't answering, Ron couldn't help but wonder… "No Way? Could it be I was right… You and Drakken?"

-"You had a lot of stupid ideas sidekick but this one tops them all." Shego said but her usual snarl wasn't here as if she was suddenly on the defensive.

Ron couldn't help but laugh at the thought, he was so caught up in his own problems that he didn't realize earlier, of course he was right. What other reason would Shego have of staying with Drakken? The Seniors paid better and Dementor was a better villain and a better scientist. It made sense now why Shego would stick with Drakken even after everything. "I hope their kids won't be teal skinned." He thought before laughing.

-"You got a problem sidekick?" Shego asked.

-"No, apart from the fact we've arrived." Ron replied.

As they entered the ship and started looking for Kim and Drakken, Kim had already managed to free both her and Drakken and they were looking for an escape when they came across the duo that came to rescue them.

-"Ron?" Kim asked, completely surprised.

-"KP!" Ron shouted before stopping, "Wow, what's up with the flower?"

-"Dr D!" Shego said as she got back to her employer.

-"Shego?" Drakken asked surprised "You came to save me?"

They all stopped, watching the improbable team that faced them. Kim and Drakken, archenemies since the first time they met had cooperated to escape while Ron and Shego, who completely despised him, had come together to save their partners.

"No," Ron thought "KP and I aren't partners anymore." But he couldn't prevent his heart from accelerating as soon as he saw Kim was okay "That's because I'm glad she's fine, nothing more." He could practically hear the sarcastic voice in his head that now had Shego's voice, probably due to their discussion on the way, a voice which said "Yeah, right, you go all the way to an alien spaceship to save her, leaving your girlfriend, oh sorry, ex-girlfriend now, behind, and you aren't in love with this girl. Keep thinking whatever you want, you know I'm right."

He shook his head, this wasn't the time for that. "We should go." He said.

-"Yeah," Kim replied "Stop getting your hopes up," she thought "he's with Yori, he only came to save you because Ron couldn't let anyone being abducted by aliens without doing anything. It has nothing to do with you."

As they fought their way out both Ron and Kim couldn't help but smile as they remembered the lost feelings they had when they used to save the world together, the adrenaline, the unwavering trust that existed between them, the way they were always able to face supervillains and catastrophes with a smile because they knew the other one was here to have their back, all these memories came back to them as they were trying to deal with Warhock and Warmonga. "I really missed that." Both of them thought.

After an exhausting fight that Drakken concluded by covering the aliens and their machines with his newly created substance that created plants that took care of the problem, Ron finally sat, "It's finally over," he thought "Well, I imagined Kp's graduation and mine to be spectacular but being attacked by alien and saved by Drakken really was unexpected. At least it's finally over."

As he was lost in his thoughts, both Warhock and Warmonga managed to free themselves of the plants created by Drakken. They started rampaging inside the streets of Middleton Ron saw everything that was a part of his life getting destroyed, the school, the houses, the people scattered, running away from the devastation.

He saw the bodies of some of the inhabitants on the ground some were dead, in what seemed to be a horrible way, some other were still alive but in bad shape, he could see some familiar faces among the people on the ground, that guy who had lost his arm was working at Bueno nacho, "Slimy Larry" the guy that handed out the movie tickets at the mall was holding his leg that was bleeding heavily. He saw a woman holding what seemed to be the dead body of what seemed to have been her little girl, and Jason Morgan who was grabbing his mother's body on the very day that was supposed to mark the beginning of his journey toward his future.

And in the middle of this devastation were the two aliens, Warmonga the woman that he had already fought with Kim and Shego earlier this year and that they had tricked in order to make her go away and her male companion, Warhock, who seemed to be holding something…

His heart missed a beat when he saw an unconscious Kim under the arm of the alien warrior. Some say you don't realize how important some things are to you until you definitely lose them, when Kim had casted him away on Christmas Eve, he thought he had already experienced the worst thing that could ever happen in his life, then when Yori had been attacked by a Yono-powered Monkey fist and had ended up on the verge of death he had felt the same way, but those moments meant nothing compared to what he felt when he saw Kim's immobile body in the arm of this alien.

Then he saw her squirm as she was trying to get away from his grasp, he saw Warhock's wicked grin as he was enjoying Kim's powerlessness and something seemed to click inside him. This wasn't going to happen, he wouldn't let it happen, he wouldn't allow it.

He started walking toward the duo as a power he never experienced before flew in his body, fueled by his anger, by his fear, by his desire to protect what was important to him. His life, the people that were part of his life and the person that was the most important of all.

As he was fighting, his fists fueled by his feelings his anger, his fear disappeared replaced by a strong desire to protect everyone that mattered to him. He put all these feelings into his strikes and finally ended the life of those who threatened what was important to him.

As everything was settling down after the fight, Ron's thoughts started to settle as his eyes were wandering on the scene of devastation the lowardians left behind. He saw his friend who gave him a sign of their hands, his parents, relieved that he was okay, and Yori who gave him a sad smile, he was glad they were safe but at this moment there was only one person he absolutely needed to see.

When he found her, sat on some rubble, a bit away from the rest of the crowd he ran to her.

-"KP!" He shouted "You okay?"

-"You shouldn't be here." She answered.

-"Huh?" Ron shrugged.

-"You should be near the destroyed lowardian ship, I'm sure the press would like a comment from the man who saved the world from aliens." She turned to face him, "It's your chance to finally be recognized like the hero you really are and not only as a sidekick, you shouldn't miss it."

-"I don't care about them," he answered.

-"Kim paused for a second before saying, "Then you should get to your girlfriend, I'm sure Yori is worried sick about you."

-"Yori and I broke up." Ron calmly stated.

Kim's face was filled with shock, disbelief and probably what seemed to be a glimmer of hope "What? Why? When?" She asked, confused.

Ron replied with the same calm tone "We broke up right after you got abducted, as for why, she said I would never be able to give her my full attention, that my thoughts would always be on someone else, and she was right." He kept going forward, "No matter what I did, there was this special someone that I couldn't get out of my head. And giving a girl anything but my everything wouldn't be right."

Kim was at loss for words, if what Ron was saying was what she thought then maybe… But how was that even possible, after everything she did how could she deserve something like that.

-"You shouldn't." She replied "I will screw up, again, maybe in a year, maybe in five or ten but it will happen, with Yori you wouldn't have to worry about this problem."

-"I don't care." Ron replied.

-"I pushed you away," she said "I took you for granted and let you get out of my life little by little."

-"I don't care." He said again, a smile on his face.

-"I listened to Him, on Christmas Eve, even though it didn't make sense, I still wanted to believe him, to believe he was my prince charming on his white horse, I would have done anything."

-"Kim," Ron said, "Do you really hink I would blame you for being too romantic? As for what you did, I believe we're both pat that."

Kim stopped talking for a moment but the tension between her and Ron was still palpable so Ron thought she probably had something else to say.

-"I…" she started, "I let him… be my first." She sighed "I gave him something that I can never take back…" She got up and faced him "And don't you dare say you don't care."

Ron didn't say a thing for a while, "You're right," he replied "I do care, and not only about that but also about everything else you said."

Kim's face dropped, in the end she was right, it was too much. It was probably better this way…

-"But I'm done letting that stand between us." He finished. "Kim, we've known each other since pre-K, more than ten years, and all these stitch were caused by one single thing, your "hottie addiction" and you seem to have gotten over it, I would be unfair to let that cut us apart. Sure you had your stupid moments but compared to all the good times, all my feelings, and everything we shared, it's small. Way too small to prevent me from moving past it."

Kim still didn't move forward, Ron wasn't scared of what she had to say. He was waiting, for her. He believed in her. "Still…" she said "It still won't bring back what I gave him." She locked her eyes in his "you deserve better."

He grabbed her arm. "Kim," he started "I won't lie about the fact that it pained me when I first knew about it. Like everyone I had this story in my head that the woman I love and I would have our first time together. But now I realize that it's not that important. I don't care about being your first if I can be your last."

Kim felt tears coming in her eyes as she looked at him, the one who truly knew her inside out, with all her flaws and imperfections, far from the image of the "girl who can do anything", but that still loved her despite all of that.

She took a step forward.

Ron pulled her into a tight hug before bringing her lips to his. It was their first kiss since the modulator incident. The first kiss they had when they were both in control of themselves. Ron wasn't that good of a kisser, definitely he had less practice then Eric, but the feelings he poured into his kiss made it completely different. She melted in is arms, completely, and when they broke their kiss she felt like he had taken a piece of her with him. And she had taken a piece of him.

-"Come on," he said offering her his hand "They are waiting for us at the ceremony."

She followed him and grabbed his hand, this hand she would never let go of anymore, as he led her toward the graduation ceremony and their future together.

 **The End**

 **So, here it is. Maybe I'll write an epilogue about what happens later but I feel like I'm done with this story, I brought the character where I wanted them to go (even though it was mostly the result of their own personality) and I don't know how I could continue this.**

 **Don't hesitate to review as usual. I'll keep writing fanfics but I think I'll go to another universe than KP, I plan to go back to writing about KP since this show had a big impact on me when I watched it but I think I'll be writing about another moment in time or another character. I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

 **Thank you all for your supports and your comments. Until next time.**

 **Novashiro**


	31. Epilogue

**Hello again guys. I said I would probably do an Epilogue, here it is. I hope you'll enjoy it.**

 **I'm currently writing about another universe than KP but I'm thinking about another Fanfiction in this universe. One that wouldn't be Kim/Ron (but still with Ron: a ?/Ron pair). I encourage you to PM me the pairing you want me to write about, I'll select the one I like the most among them.**

Ron was finishing dressing up, today would go well, today he would do it, he would make it happen. This time, no supervillain attacking a town or trying to steal a device for world domination, no rescue mission and no damn GJ tunnel that would open under their feet.

Things were the complete opposite from last time. This time he was sure about the next step, he would finally be able to open his own restaurant thanks to the money he had gathered by creating new recipes that opened him the gates of the cooking world. This time it was a day of clear blue sky, the complete opposite of last time when clouds were blocking the view.

This time there would be no alien ship that would barge in the middle of the ceremony.

This time his relationship with Kim was going stronger than ever. For now he had to get out of their apartment to meet Kim and go their graduation ceremony.

Their graduation ceremony. He couldn't believe Kim refused so many prestigious schools in Europe or around the world just to stay with him. When he had asked her why she had done that she just answered that getting away from him in high school had been her worst mistake and there was no way she would repeat it.

Their apartment. He had been amazed by how they ended up living together. After two years in college they finally *did it*. He still couldn't find a delicate way to say this since *make love* sounded a bit cliché and *have sex* just couldn't describe it. However, Kim quickly started spending more time at Ron's place than at her own place. Well, technically she spent more _nights_ at his place than days but that's the same result. Anyway, when they came back for Christmas Kim's parents had a gift for them. When they were handed the keys of _their apartment_ both Kim and Ron were shocked and couldn't help but ask where this came from. It turned out Kim's parents had decided to surprise their daughter with a visit only to find a closed door. When they had managed to open it the place looked like it had been left for days. So after talking this out with Ron's family they had decided it would be better for them to live together.

He was so lost in his memories that he didn't notice Kim sneaking up behind him.

-"What are you doing, standing here?" she started, "we'll be late."

-"On my way KP." He answered, heading for their car.

KP, the friendly nickname he gave her when they were kids had come a long way too. No matter what she said, he kept calling her that. People may see her as Kim Possible the girl who could do anything but to him she was still his KP, the girl he knew since pre-K, with all her qualities and her flaws. The girl that wasn't perfect but that he loved all the same. No, he loved her even more now that he knew of her flaws, and he knew it was the same for her.

No matter how much this last year of high school had hurt him, he knew this was in the past: there would be no more Eric. As a matter of fact, Kim hadn't given the college pretty boys a single look. Of course, they despised him for this, how could a loser like him date a girl like Kim? How could they know they all owed him their lives?

Global Justice had secured all the footage of *The Middleton Incident* and made sure no trace of the alien spaceship would remain in the city. Everything concerning this story had been classified and no one except the one who were here would know about it. Kim and Ron had both approved, the world wasn't ready to know about hostile aliens and Ron's superpowers. This would wait.

As Kim was driving, he let his mind wander to the rest of their group. Josh and Tara broke up after high school, Josh had decided to go to an art school while Tara was more interested in a classical college. Distance had pulled those two apart, even though they decided to stay friends. Monique was on her way to becoming a fashion designer while Felix had managed to get into MIT with flying colors. Their game of cat and mouse was still going on, even though the distance between them was much bigger than the one between Josh and Tara, both of them kept teasing the other whenever he had the chance without any possibility to know who the cat was and who the mouse was. Both Felix and Monique had no boyfriend or girlfriend through College but their *relationship* sure was twisted.

Yori went back to Yamanouchi, she still sent news from time to times but she mostly remained invisible, like the ninja she was. Ron was still regretting how he handled the whole stitch through the end of his last high school year. Refusing to acknowledge his feelings for Kim only brought pains to Yori when they became too much for him to keep them hidden.

They finally arrived on time for their graduation ceremony. Kim's family was here, his parents and Hana were here too. She was growing well, and she didn't seem to remember the fact she fought an evil monkey devil when she was a baby. Ron was relieved that episode didn't traumatized his little sister.

Kim stepped forward to get her diploma, Ron couldn't help but admire how graceful and strong she was, even today he couldn't get enough of watching her. He had always watched her from a distance, even when they were busy saving the world in high school he couldn't say he was as much a part of the team that she was. She was the one fighting villains, rescuing him most of the time and even though he managed to help her she was the one doing most of the job. And for a long time he had been satisfied with this. With standing behind her. The only positive point this Eric stitch had on him was that he realized standing behind her wasn't enough. He wanted to stand next to her, to be her equal, because that was the only way they could be together.

And now, as he was walking toward the stage in order to close his student's years, he couldn't help but smile at the fact that he had managed to do it. A perfectly normal guy like him had managed to stand next to THE Kim Possible, as an equal. That made him feel confident enough to do what he had planned for this evening.

The graduation ceremony had gone swiftly, no alien spaceship came to interrupt it this time, and as the last student left the stage, Ron captured Kim's eyes. Both of them stood at the same time. They didn't build a lot of bonds with their classmates. The things they lived were too radically different for them to build any strong connections with them. They had some friends but no friendship as strong as the one they built in Middleton. Now that this chapter of their life was over both of them were anxiously waiting to move toward the next chapter of their life together.

They left with their parents and family. Jim and Tim were already in college and had to learn blowing things up was expensive, especially when their parents stopped paying for everything they blew up. Hana reminded Ron of Kim when she was younger, happy and cheerful but also with a strong drive that pushed her forward. He knew she would be alright as long as she didn't forget who she was. Even though, would this happen she could count on her older brother to help her.

The afternoon had gone really well. The tweebs had left them early, they had to go back to the big project they were working on and Hana was getting tired of listen to grown-ups. Kim and Ron said goodbye to their parents and headed toward the car. The sun was setting and they left their parents as they were heading toward their beds.

-"Kim…" Ron started, "Do you mind if we go somewhere else before coming home? There is something I'd like to talk about with you." He had done his best to prevent his voice from shaking.

-"Sure." Kim answered, "Where are we going?"

-"You'll see." Ron replied.

He drove through the streets of Middleton in silence, all the next steps were swirling in his head. He had practiced this in the bathroom for hours while Kim was absent. This was going to be alright.

As they finally arrived in front of a fence, Ron wasted no time and climbed it, motioning Kim to follow him. And so she did. They arrived in a little courtyard with a sandbox and a swing hanging on a tree. After a few seconds, Kim finally recognized the place.

-"This is…" She started.

-"Yes," Ron continued with his back in front of her, "The pre-K where we met."

-"I think it was around here." Kim said with a nostalgic look on her face while gesturing toward the place where she had been bullied a long time ago. The place where she met Ron.

-"Why did you want to bring me here?" Kim asked.

-"Well, I thought it was the perfect spot." He sighed, "The place we met should also be the best place in order for both of us to move forward don't you think?"

-"Move… forward?" Kim asked, unsure of what he meant "What do you mean?"

-"You see, Kim…" he said "I'm not satisfied by the way things are going between us. It's like I can't put words on what we are anymore. So I have to do something about it."

Kim looked at his face, he seemed dead serious, she knew this look: he wasn't going to budge from the conclusion he had reached. "Ok, I get it," She said "If that's what you want, then do it." She paused, not noticing the obviously confused look on Ron's face, "But before you break up with me maybe we could talk about whatever problem there is don't you think?"

Ron's eyes went as large as saucers "What do you mean break up with you…"

-"I don't know," Kim replied "Maybe because of the *I'd like to talk* the *I'm not satisfied by the way things are going* and the *I have to do something about it*?"

Ron's face became bright red, he shook his head, "Oh shit, that came out really wrong." He said "Of course I don't want to break up with you, damn I'm stupid, it's just I can't seem to figure out a way to say what I want to say and…"

Kim grabbed his chin and put a finger on his lips "Shhh…" she started "Ron Stoppable, even as an adult you still don't get girls…" She smiled "How about you just say what you want to say? No long speech, no avoiding the subject, just going straight to the point."

Their faces ended up really close, only separated by a few inches, Ron took a deep breath and just said it: "KP, will you marry me?"

Kim's smile became even brighter she locked her eyes into the eyes of the one who never stopped loving her through the years "Of course I want, you silly." She replied before kissing his lips softly.

She felt herself melting in the kiss, in his arms she felt alive, full. It felt right. She lost herself in the sensation and didn't even seem to remark Ron putting the ring on her finger. A ring with a gem in the shape of a Pandaroo.


End file.
